


Aftermath

by LilianHalcombe



Series: Empire's Fall [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Canon Queer Character, Canon Queer Character of Color, Canon Queer Relationship, F/F, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-06 20:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 47,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3147311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilianHalcombe/pseuds/LilianHalcombe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Now back in Republic City after their impromptu vacation to the Spirit World, Asami and Korra try to adjust to life as a couple as both women face unexpected challenges arising from the defeat of the Earth Empire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

* * *

PART ONE : AFTERMATH

* * *

 

Asami Sato leaned back against her front grill of her dark-blue satomobile, the warmth radiating off the still cooling engine keeping the cold of the night air at bay. A light evening mist hung over Yue Bay, but it was not thick enough yet to obscure her view out towards Air Temple Island where she could see the lights of a small boat cutting across the water towards her. Asami knew this had to be the boat bringing Korra over to the mainland and her heart leapt at the thought of seeing her girlfriend again.

Although it had only been two days since they had returned from their vacation in the spirit world, Asami ached to see Korra again. She had been kept extremely busy with meetings and planning sessions with the board of Future Industries, charting the course her company would need to take to recover from the disaster that had befallen it when Kuvira's army had marched into Republic City. She knew Korra had been just as busy, meeting with President Raiko and the representatives from the Earth Empire about the upcoming free elections in the Earth states as well as settling dozens of minor disputes between the city's new spirit denizens and returning human citizens.

Fortunately, they had previously organised to go to dinner this evening and it gave of both of them the excuse they needed to escape their duties for the night. Asami had even bought a new evening dress specifically for their date, spending far more than she would ever admit on it. It was a truly gorgeous dress, however, with an embroidered red silk bodice featuring a plunging neckline trimmed with floral black lace that was definitely more daring than her usual dresses. The skirt was made of four different layers of silk and an outer layer of lace net and she had added a red silk shawl that draped around her shoulders. She also wore her mother's favourite piece of jewellery, a heavy gold pendant set with a magnificent ruby and a cabochon cut emerald, as well as her gold bracelets and a gold hairpin shaped into the Future Industries logo.

Seeing that the boat was now pulling up alongside the wharf, Asami left her satomobile and hurried over to the stone steps leading down to the wharf, eager to greet Korra as she arrived. The Avatar sat at the back of the small boat, wearing the same dress she had worn at Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding and looking even more beautiful than Asami could remember. Seeing Asami, Korra used a small burst of airbending to carry herself safely out of the back of the boat and onto the wharf.

“Hey there,” Korra said as she walked up the steps to greet Asami. Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked down at Asami's new dress. “Wow, you look amazing,” she said. “I'm so jealous, this is about the only dress I have at the moment.”

“Well then I might just have to take you shopping sometime,” Asami said. “Little Ba Sing Se has reopened and there are a couple of nice stores in the upper ring. Just as long as we don't run into the 'little king'.”

Korra laughed. “Fortunately he should be leaving for Ba Sing Se tomorrow afternoon. I'm supposed to go to his farewell ceremony at City Central Station with President Raiko and Tenzin.”

“Oh?” Asami said. “I didn't know. Is Mako going with him?”

“I don't know,” Korra replied. “Tenzin didn't say, he was too busy reminding me not to be late.”

“Do you need us to wait for you, Avatar Korra,” one of the White Lotus guards interrupted, calling up from the boat.

“I'll see she gets home safely,” Asami answered them, slipping her arm through Korra's and guiding the other woman away towards the waiting satomobile. Behind them the boat's engine roared as the guards turned it away from the wharf and back towards the distant island.

“I missed you,” Asami said, as they approached her satomobile. “I...”

That was all Asami managed to get out as Korra unhooked her arm from Asami's and reached up with both hands to cup her girlfriend's face and pull her close enough to kiss. It was a gentle kiss, but one full of promise and anticipation for the night ahead.

“Oh spirits,” Asami gasped as they finally broke apart.

“I've missed you too,” Korra said, her blue eyes almost luminous in the dim light. When Asami didn't respond immediately, she asked, “was... was that okay? I know we said we would take this slow, but...”

“Oh Korra that was perfect,” Asami said. “But any more kisses like that and we might not make it to the restaurant.”

“Would that be a bad thing?”

“No,” Asami replied. “But... um... I sort of already skipped lunch at the office and if I miss dinner as well...”

“You skipped lunch?” Korra asked. “Are you feeling all right?”

“I'm fine, Korra,” Asami assured her. “I... I was just nervous about this evening.”

“Nervous? But in the spirit world... we... well you know,” Korra said, blushing at the memory.

Asami took Korra's hand and squeezed it gently, marvelling again at the warmth her girlfriend seemed to radiate. “We did, and it was amazing. But... well this is more real if you know what I mean? Besides, I'm pretty sure that this is technically counted as our first official date. A girl is allowed to get nervous on a first date.”

“Well, I guess I'm a little nervous as well,” Korra admitted. “I'm not entirely familiar with this whole dinner date thing. The last couple of times didn't work out so well for me.”

“Don't worry, it will be fun,” Asami told her, leading Korra over to the waiting satomobile. Once they were both seated, Asami turned the key and the satomobile came to life with the deep purring sound of a high-performance engine.

“So,” Korra began, as Asami drove them away from the wharf and onto the nearby road. “Can you tell me where we are going?”

“Kwong's Cuisine of course.”

“Kwong's?” Korra asked, glancing over towards the vine-covered piles of rubble that surrounded the spirit portal site. “Wasn't Kwong's in Downtown?”

“It was, but they have rebuilt... well not really rebuilt exactly, they bought an old ferry that was due to be decommissioned and have converted it into a floating restaurant. It's still needs a lot of work as they have only had a couple of weeks to get it ready, but it's the first of the old Downtown icons to reopen so I thought it was appropriate, even if it's not longer in Downtown.”

“Sounds perfect,” Korra said, and Asami smiled at her, recalling the last time she had heard Korra say that exact phrase.

Asami turned the satomobile west, driving along the edge of the crater that surrounded the spirit portal and onto the Silk Road Bridge towards the western shore of the city. Even with the destruction in the Downtown district the road was busy with other traffic and Asami was forced to slow her speed, her perfectly manicured fingernails tapping the steering wheel in annoyance at the delay.

“So, how is everyone on Air Temple Island?” She inquired as they crossed the bridge stuck behind a large truck hauling rubble away from ruined city centre.

“Quite a lot has changed in the short time we were away,” Korra said. “Bumi and most of the other airbenders are off helping General Iroh. Bolin and Opal have gone with Su to help reclaim Zaofu. Tenzin is still... well Tenzin and... um... I think Jinora is on to us.”

Asami arched one eyebrow and glanced over at Korra, “Oh? Did she say something?”

“No, but she has been looking at me strangely ever since I got back. Then when I told Pema that I wouldn't be there for dinner tonight she was whispering to Kai and then they were both looking at me.”

They drove in silence for a while before Asami asked, “Jinora can meditate into the spirit world, you don't think...”

“Oh spirits, I hope not,” Korra said, blushing bright red. “She would have said something surely?”

“I don't know, maybe she is just respecting our privacy.”

“We will have to tell them all eventually,” Korra said.

“We will,” Asami assured her. “Once we figure out just what exactly we are going to tell them and how best to do it.”

“Yeah, I'm certainly not looking forward to telling Mako.”

“It's Bolin I'm more worried about,” Asami said, turning the satomobile off the main road and heading down towards the docks.

“Why Bolin?” Korra asked. “He will understand and be happy for us.”

“Of course he will, but once he knows we are dating then you just know he is going to be organising double dates with him and Opal all the time.”

Korra laughed. “I can imagine it now. Speaking of Bolin, before we went away did he mention anything to you about when he is due back from Zaofu?”

“I think maybe in a week or two,” Asami replied. “But, I don't think he knew himself when exactly he was going to be back.”

By now they had reached the docks, and Asami drove towards a large ferry, freshly painted and brightly lit with orange lanterns that hung from the upper decks. As the satomobile came to stop near a gangplank that led up onto the ferry, a valet appeared to open Korra's door and help her out of the vehicle.

“So this is it,” Korra said, as the satomobile was driven away to be parked and Asami joined her at the base of the gangplank.

“The all new Kwong's Cuisine,” Asami confirmed. She took Korra's hand and led her up towards the restaurant entrance. “Come on, I'm starving.”

While the owners had yet to finish decorating the outside of the old ferry, inside the restaurant was richly appointed with thick red carpets covering the floors and antique tapestries and paintings hanging from the walls. Vases of fresh flowers and braziers of burning incense helped to cover up the smell of fresh paint.

“Asami Sato!” an elderly woman called out as they entered. She walked over to Asami with a friendly smile and her arms outstretched.

“Hello Madame Kwong,” Asami said, giving the older woman a brief but warm hug. “How is Mr. Kwong?”

“Oh, he had to go home early. He's not as young as he used to be, heh, but none of us are any more. He'll be sorry he missed you though, we owe you so much.”

“Happy to help,” Asami replied.

Madame Kwong looked over at Korra. “And this must be Avatar Korra,” she said, bowing low. “It is an honour to have you in our humble restaurant, Avatar.”

“It's... um... very nice to be here,” Korra replied.

“We have a special table set aside for you two ladies on the second floor,” the woman told them. “I'll get my son, Jian, to show you the way.”

Madame Kwong waved to a middle-aged man on the other side of the room, who quickly hurried over and bowed to Asami and Korra. “This way,” he said, waving them towards the carpeted stairs leading up to the second floor.

“What did she mean?” Korra whispered to Asami as they followed Jian up the stairs. When Asami looked at Korra with a puzzled expression, Korra added, “She said she owed you so much.”

“Oh, that,” Asami said, looking almost embarrassed as she whispered back. “Well, Future Industries loaned the Kwong family the money to help fix this place up. Not just the Kwong's, of course,” Asami quickly added. “Before we went away I set up a fund that has been assisting a number of the old family owned businesses to get back on their feet.”

“I had no idea,” Korra said, smiling warmly at her girlfriend. “That's really nice of you.”

“I wanted to help where I could,” Asami explained. “The board doesn't like it, of course, but I wouldn't think of it as Republic City any more if we lost all the people and businesses who have been here since the beginning.”

“Your table, Miss Sato,” Jian said, leading them past a number of other tables before stopping next to a cosy table for two near a large picture window that looked out over the harbour and the distant glow of spirit portal. Thick red curtains hanging down from the ceiling blocked off the table from the rest of the restaurant and gave them some privacy. As the two woman took their seats, he bent over and lit the candles in the centre of the table. “I will send a waiter over shortly with your menu,” he said.

“One moment,” Asami said, gesturing for him to come closer.

She whispered something into Jian's ear and he nodded. “Of course, Miss Sato, I will arrange it immediately.”

“This is really nice,” Korra said, reaching over the table to take Asami's hand. “Did you organise all this?”

Asami smiled and squeezed Korra's hand affectionately. “Of course,” she said. “I wanted our first date to be perfect, just the two of us.”

As if on cue a familiar figure appeared from behind the curtain separating their table from the rest of the restaurant and a voice called out, “Ladies!”

“Please, not him,” Korra whispered, releasing Asami's hand and covering her face, as if that would prevent her from being noticed.

Prince Wu appeared at the edge of the table. “I didn't know you would be here tonight,” he said with a broad smile. “I could have invited you to my farewell dinner.”

“Hello, Wu,” Korra sighed. “Um... Mako isn't here with you is he?”

“Not tonight,” the prince said. “I gave the tough guy the night off so he could help Grandma Yin and the rest his family finish packing.”

“They are leaving?” Asami asked.

“Yes, Mako and his family are coming back to Ba Sing Se with me,” Wu said. “Now that the war and instability is over for good it is safe for them to return and I'm kind of used to having them around now so I invited them to stay in the royal palace until we can find them somewhere more permanent in the city.”

“I had no idea they wanted to leave,” Asami said. “Mako never said anything to me.”

“Well you have been away on holiday,” Wu said. “It was all decided last week. Mako is going to continue to be my bodyguard until I abdicate and his family wanted to go home as well, so I made the arrangements.” He leaned closer and in a conspiratorial whisper added, “I think Grandma Yin has a bit of a crush on me to be honest.”

He straightened and stretched, looking around the room before leaning in close again. “You know, I have finished my meal and my guests have departed, but as you two ladies are here alone I'm happy to stick around if you want the company.”

“We aren't alone,” Korra said. A faint blush spread across her cheeks as she added, “we are here together.”

“I can see that,” Wu said. “I meant, neither of you have dates.”

“Wu,” Asami said. “What Korra means is that she is my date this evening.”

“Oh... I see,” Wu said, sounding surprised. “You can do that?”

“You don't get out much do you, Wu,” Asami commented with a wry smile.

“Obviously not,” the prince said. “Well, that does explain how you were able to resist my obvious charms.”

“Wu!” Korra cut in.

“Yes?”

“Can you please leave.”

The prince looked shocked for a second, but then he bowed low. “I apologise for intruding, Avatar Korra,” he said in a conciliatory tone. “Please enjoy your evening with Miss Sato.”

“Wait!” Asami said, calling him back. “Don't tell Mako we are dating, okay? We want to tell him ourselves... when the time is right.”

“Don't trouble yourself, ladies,” Wu said with a quick salute. “You can trust me to keep a secret.”

With that, the prince wandered off towards the stairs rubbing his chin with an extremely thoughtful expression on his face.

Asami frowned as she watched the prince depart. “You don't think...”

“I'm not thinking,” Korra said, shaking her head. “Please don't make me think it.”

Asami giggled. “It would be funny though.”

“Your drinks, Miss Sato,” a smartly dressed waiter said as he arrived at their table with a tray and two menus tucked on his arm, interrupting any further thoughts of Wu. “One Avatar Special for you, Avatar Korra, and a Republic City Rose for you, Miss Sato, and here are your menus. Please let me know when you are ready to make your order.”

After the waiter had bowed and withdrawn, Korra eyed the tall multi-coloured drink. “What exactly is an Avatar Special?” she asked.

“Try it and see,” Asami said, sipping her pale red drink as she flipped through the menu. “Would you like me to order?”

Korra nodded as she sipped the cocktail Asami had ordered for her. “This is really nice.”

“It's one of my favourites.” Asami said, putting the menu down and waving to the waiter. “Each of the layers is supposed to represent a different element.”

Korra sipped the drink again as Asami placed their order. Once the waiter was on his way, with menus tucked under one arm, she asked, “So it seems like you know the owners of this restaurant pretty well.”

“I do,” Asami said. “My family has been dining at Kwong's for as long as I can remember, and I also bring business clients here quite often as well.”

“And dates as well?” Korra asked, before quickly adding, “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. I know you must have dated while I was away, and it's perfectly all right that you did.”

“It's all right, Korra,” Asami assured her. “I told you that I want everything to be open between us so I don't mind you asking, but the truth is there is very little to tell.”

“Really? I thought... well let's just say I was surprised to hear you were still single by the time I got back to Republic City.”

“While you were away I never really found the time to date anyone. My assistant, Seiko, did try to set me up with a couple of her friends until I told her to stop. After that, I was always so busy with work that I never found to time to meet anyone. Of course, that didn't stop the press pairing me off with every eligible celebrity in Republic City, even Raiko at one point, despite the fact that he is happily married to Buttercup.”

“President Raiko? Why would they think that?”

Asami shrugged. “Who knows how they get these ideas. I was meeting with Raiko quite often at the time to discuss the rebuilding plans and after one late dinner meeting at Kwong's suddenly the papers decided we were having a secret affair. Then I had reporters following my every step for over two weeks before they lost interest and moved on to some other story.”

“I suppose that means we can expect reporters following us around every time we go out for a meal then?”

“Probably,” Asami said. “I didn't see any outside tonight though so I think we are safe for a little while. But, yes once our relationship becomes public knowledge I'd expect quite a bit of attention from the press. Is that going to be a problem?”

Korra sighed. “No, but I was really hoping they'd leave me alone for a while. Ever since I came to republic city I have been hounded by them. They are always questioning everything I do and asking when I'm going to fix things I can't fix and demanding to know why I can't solve every little problem that is plaguing the city.”

“I still remember your eight percent approval rating,” Asami said. “The press has been extremely harsh towards my company in the past too, especially after Amon disappeared. The stories they ran about Future Industries and my father during that time nearly bankrupted the whole company.”

“Maybe we should just head back to the Spirit World for the rest of our lives.”

Asami laughed. “Maybe... although I did miss sleeping in a proper bed while I was away.”

“Things were so much easier there,” Korra said.

“They were,” Asami agreed. “But, the world still needs the Avatar, and my company needs me. As much as we might like to disappear into the Spirit World, we can't ignore our responsibilities here forever.”

“I know,” Korra sighed. “I'm just worried that there won't be time for us.”

“There will be,” Asami assured her. “We will make time for us, as much time as we need, and we will make it work.”

The first course of their meals arrived before they could say anything more. Asami had ordered prawns wrapped in wafer thin pastry and a sweet chilli dipping sauce for herself, and the dish was presented with all the elegant style customers had come to expect from Kwong's. For Korra she had ordered a more substantial meal of roast turtle-duck, thinly sliced and served with sliced fresh mango in an orange sauce. Both woman said little as they ate the exquisitely prepared food.

“So,” Korra said, as she picked over the last remnants of food on her plate. “If Mako's family is going back to Ba Sing Se, does that mean you'll alone in the mansion now?”

Asami didn't answer immediately, but instead looked out the window towards the distant glow of the spirit portal. “I'm not moving back into the mansion,” she said finally.

“I am so sorry,” Korra said. “I should have realised that with your father gone...”

“It's not just that,” Asami said. “I haven't been living there for years now, which is one of the main reasons I was happy to let Mako's family live there, especially as Grandma Yin made sure they kept the mansion and the grounds very clean and tidy.”

“You are welcome to stay at Air Temple Island again,” Korra told her. “With so many of the airbenders away on missions there is plenty of room now and I'm sure Tenzin wouldn't mind.”

Asami smiled at her, but shook her head. “While I'd love to be so close to you, I have somewhere else in mind.”

“It's not your office at the satomobile factory is it?”

“Hey, that was only for a couple of weeks and only because my old apartment in Future Industries Tower now has spirit vines growing through it.”

“I'm sorry Kuvira destroyed so much of your company,” Korra said.

“She hurt a lot of companies,” Asami said. “We lost our main warehouse and the tower, but all of our factories and other holdings are intact. Like the city, Future Industries will rebuild.”

“So the city will recover?” Korra asked.

“I've seen some early drafts of Raiko's plans,” Asami said. “It is an ambitious and expensive plan, but if it is successful then Republic City will soon be better than ever. Kuvira has scarred it, but it will heal.”

“I'm surprised Raiko isn't blaming me for it again like last time.”

“Maybe by supporting you he is trying to cover up the fact that he surrendered the city of Kuvira during the invasion. The elections are in a few months so he can't afford to look weak now.”

“That does sound more like Raiko,” Korra said, finishing off her drink. “That's the one part of Wu's plan to give independence to the earth states I don't like. More politicians.”

“It is certainly going to require some adjustments,” Asami agreed. “But I think it will mean a better world for everyone in the end.”

The waiter returned with the next course of their meal, bringing Korra two dishes, the first a bowl of grilled egg noddles mixed with prawns, cabbage, and chilli sauce, and the second a plate of sliced pig-chicken breast stir fried with carrots, bamboo shoots and mushrooms and served with sizzling rice crackers in ginger and lime sauce. Asami's main course was smaller, with a bowl of steamed rice and a plate of crispy fried pig-chicken fillet sliced thinly and glazed in lychee sauce. Korra's eyes narrowed as she noticed the difference in the amount of food on their plates.

“Another drink?” Asami asked before the waiter departed their table.

“Sure,” Korra replied. “The same again I think.”

The waiter nodded and left with their empty glasses. Both women dug into their meals and by the time the waiter had returned with fresh drinks they were nearly finished and just a few scraps remained.

“So...” Korra said, swirling the last strip of meat in the thick ginger and chilli sauce. “I can't help but notice that my dishes seem to be twice the size of yours.”

Asami sipped her cocktail and gazed intently at her girlfriend. “Oh?”

“I was just wondering why that was.”

“Korra, how many meals have we had together over the years?”

Korra frowned. “A fair few I guess... but that doesn't explain this.”

“Do you think I haven't noticed that you always go back for seconds.”

“Not always,” Korra complained. “I didn't in Zaofu.”

“Yes, but you were the only one who was actually able to eat the entire meal and you had two servings of dessert the first night we were there.”

“Well, you were the one who skipped lunch today,” Korra reminded her. “I had lunch at Air Temple Island.”

“So you want me to cancel dessert then?”

Korra looked pained. “Um... what is it?”

“Madame Kwong's special iced mango pudding with mint and chocolate. But if you don't want any...”

“You know, Miss Sato, you shouldn't tease the Avatar.”

A sly smile crept across Asami's face. “You think this is me teasing you? We can move on to teasing if you like. Now, dessert or no dessert?”

“All right, I'll have the dessert, but you are having some too.”

“Sound fair,” Asami agreed.

Korra quickly claimed the spoon when the bowl of dessert arrived soon after, while Asami stole one of the thin sticks of chocolate that had been stuck into the top of the pudding. “Oh wow,” Korra said, as she devoured the first spoonful of the dessert. “This is amazing. I'm not sure I want to share it now.”

“If you don't share then you are walking home,” Asami warned her.

“Well maybe I can spare a little,” Korra said, scooping out some more of the dessert. She held the spoon up and looked questioningly at Asami.

Asami shuffled her chair a little closer and allowed Korra to feed her the spoonful of dessert. “Mm, you are right, Korra, this is pretty amazing.”

“I thought you ate here all the time?”

“I do,” Asami replied. “But I normally don't have dessert.”

“So you want some more?”

“Yes please.”

Between them they quickly polished off the bowl of dessert and sat back smiling warmly at each other as they finished their drinks.

“So where now?” Korra asked, as she placed the empty cocktail glass back on the table. “It's a bit early to head back to Air Temple Island.”

“We could see a mover,” Asami suggested. “But, there isn't anything new out at the moment, so unless you want to see one of Bolin's old Nuktuk movers...”

“Maybe not,” Korra replied.

“Or we could go for a drive,” Asami said.

“Where to?”

“Well, there is something I've had some people working on while we were away. It's nowhere near finished yet, but I'd like to show you anyway. It's not too far from here.”

“What is it?”

“Do you mind if I make it a surprise?” Asami asked.

“All right,” Korra said. “Lead on,”

Smiling broadly, Asami took Korra's hand and led her towards the exit.

 

* * *

 

After pressing the shutter to take one last photo, Kuang lowered his camera with a despondent sigh and slumped back down in the chair near the open window that overlooked the docks below. He picked up his almost empty glass and downed the rest of the spiced rice wine in a single gulp.

“No luck tonight?” the barman asked as he polished the smooth wooden surface of the bar, wiping away a spill left by a previous customer.

The reporter shrugged his broad shoulders. “A few clear shots of Avatar Korra and her friend Asami Sato leaving Kwong's that will probably sell to the society pages of the United Daily News or the Republic News, especially if that's a new dress Miss Sato is wearing tonight. Nothing that will earn me the big yuans though. The papers want scandal and sensation if it's something that is going to make the front page. Asami Sato in another red dress isn't really what I'm looking for, that girl must have a hundred or more different red dresses by now.”

“That's too bad,” the barman said, tucking his cleaning rag into his belt and placing a fresh glass on the bar.

“Now, if either of them was going out to dinner with a new boyfriend, that would be news and I'd already be running down to the newspaper offices right now for a real big pay day, but sadly two friends going to dinner doesn't earn me much, even if one of them is the Avatar.”

“Another drink?” the barman asked.

“Yeah,” Kuang said, packing his camera away in the leather bag he carried to protect it from the weather.

The barman poured another generous measure of rice wine and carried the glass over to the reporter's table by the window. “So where are you going for your next scoop?”

“I'll swing past the office to get these shots developed and drop them off at one of the newspapers and then home to bed I think,” Kuang replied, tossing several notes down on the table. “I'm scheduled to be at Prince Wu's farewell ceremony at Central City Station tomorrow so maybe I'll get something juicy there, although with half the reporters in Republic City also going to be there I'll be hard pressed to get anything exclusive. I tell you, one good picture of a breaking scandal and I've got it made, but the world just doesn't want to cooperate with me.”

The barman nodded in sympathy and swept the yuans off the table and tucked them into a pocket. He patted the reporter on the shoulder. “Well, I guess we'll see you in here tomorrow evening?”

Kuang nodded as he finished his last drink. “Like I have anywhere else to be,” he muttered as he picked up his camera bag and headed for the door.

 

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

 

“This looks like a dead end,” Korra commented as Asami turned the satomobile into a narrow cobbled street lit by a single streetlight. She twisted in her seat to look around but had to concede that she had long ago lost track of the route Asami had taken from the restaurant to reach this street. They were somewhere high in the hills overlooking the harbour now and it appeared to be one of the oldest parts of Republic City and the streets were lined with old buildings and apartments built in the Earth Kingdom style.

“It is,” Asami replied, as she slowed the satomobile and pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road outside a five-story stone building near the end of the narrow street. At first glance the building appeared to be an old workshop or perhaps even a small warehouse, as it had large green metal doors set on the ground floor near the road and an ancient, faded sign was mounted on the wall above the doors. Korra could see wooden balconies and windows on the higher floors which also suggested that it was, or at least had at one time been, an apartment building. Whatever the building had been, it now appeared abandoned with wooden boards nailed across most of the windows and no lights that indicated anyone was living there. However, the lights of the satomobile illuminated a surprisingly new looking steel chain and lock held the metal doors closed.

“Wait here a moment,” Asami said as she opened the driver side door and walked the short distance over the locked doors. Metal flashed for a second in the dim light cast by the streetlight as Asami opened and removed the lock and then tugged the chain free so she could slide back the large doors leading into the building. Then she was back in the satomobile and with careful driving she manoeuvred the vehicle through the open doors and into the building.

“What is this place?” Korra asked after Asami had switched off the engine and both women had exited the satomobile. It was dark and she could see little more than the concrete floor, but there was a smell of fresh paint and some harsher chemical in the air.

Asami didn't reply immediately, instead she walked over to the door and flicked on the overhead lighting, illuminating a large, mostly empty workshop. Aside from her satomobile, the room contained an old partially disassembled motorbike, two empty wooden benches and a brand new Future Industries generator that was sitting near the far wall, a broken packing crate resting beside it. Cables from the generator led up a set of stairs to the second floor, and Korra could see that lights had also come on in the stairwell, probably operated by the same switch as the workshop.

“This was where Future Industries started,” Asami said, sweeping her hand around the almost empty workshop. “Many years ago this was a workshop owned by a local mechanic who repaired early Cabbage Corp vehicles and engines. My grandparents lived in an apartment here for decades and this was also where my father built the very first satomobile prototype. This was his childhood home.”

“That must have been a long time ago,” Korra said.

“It was, the building itself is over sixty years old and my grandparents moved here soon after they were married. After my father's company took off, he bought out the whole building and it's been owned by the company ever since. My father never mentioned it and until a few weeks ago I'd never even been here, but I found it on the company books when I was tallying our surviving assets after Kuvira's defeat and checked through the records to find out as much as I could about it.”

“It looks abandoned,” Korra said. “All the windows outside were boarded up.”

“According to the company records, my father evicted all the tenants from the building a little over five years ago,” Asami said. “Officially it was abandoned, but I think he might have been using it as a safe house for the equalist movement as there was an old printing press and some boxes of equalist propaganda here when I first opened it up. Also, the electrical wiring in the building was upgraded sometime in the past seven years, you can tell by the type of wiring they used, but I can't find any company records of who ordered the upgrades or who paid for it.”

“So what are you going to do with it?” Korra asked.

“It is going to be my new home,” Asami replied, sounding excited by the prospect. “Give me a moment to shut this door and I'll show you around.”

After the short time needed to close the outer doors and attach the lock to another chain that was hanging from the inside the door, Asami led Korra up the stairs to the second floor. Once on the second floor landing, they followed the cables from the generator through a hole in the western wall that opened into a large room that had been carved out of what had been several smaller apartments. The ceiling had also been cut away to expand the room up into the floor above and several large steel girders had been welded together and were now being used to stabilise the room until something more permanent could be constructed. It was difficult to see anything in the room with only the lights from the stairwell, but Korra could see a number of heavy tools and crates of equipment scattered about the room and there were also several piles of rubble and broken timbers littering the floor, all that remained of the apartments that had once filled this space. The cables from the generator led to a large saw used for cutting through stone.

“When it's finished this is going to be my new workshop,” Asami said. “This is to replace the one I used back in Future Industries Tower. It won't be as large, but there should be enough room for everything I want. I do still need to decide if I put another door into the wall here, or I build a hatch through the floor leading down into the garage and install a crane.”

She led Korra back out of the room and opened a door on the other side of the stairs. This door led to a small hallway with three more doors leading off it. “Once we knock down the walls of these apartments then this will be converted into a gym and I might put in a sauna and a small swimming pool here or on the floor above. There is an old flower shop on the floor below that was boarded up a decade ago that I plan to rebuild into an entrance hall and a storeroom. Of course these stairs will need to be widened and rebuilt eventually as well.”

“It looks like a lot of work,” Korra said, looking at the dusty and rubbish filled hallway and trying to ignore the smells that wafted about the abandoned section of the apartment building.

“It will be,” Asami agreed. “Refurbishing the whole building will take several months or maybe even a year or more, especially as most of the builders and workers I need to finish it will also be busy with a hundred other projects around the city while we are rebuilding. Come on, I'll show you the rest.”

They went back to the stairs and went up two more floors, bypassing the third floor where the doors had been sealed. On the fourth floor Asami paused near two doors. “No work has been done on this floor yet, but this floor will eventually have an office and library so I can work from home and the other side will be the first floor of the guest wing.”

“Guest wing?” Korra asked.

Asami nodded. “Yes, half of the forth and fifth floors will become the guest rooms, just in case anyone is visiting. The other half will be my home. While we were away I had some builders busy on the fifth floor refurbishing one of the apartments there so I now have somewhere to stay that isn't my office.”

They continued up the stairs, finally stopping at the top of the final set of stairs. “So... um... what do you think?” Asami asked, turning to watch Korra's face carefully as if she was seeking approval.

“You are asking me?” Korra asked. “I'm the Avatar. I've never owned a place of my own in my life.”

“I know that,” Asami said. “But do you think it's a good idea? I could just go back to the mansion instead. I would need to hire some new servants now that Mako's family is gone, so that might turn out more expensive, but it would be the quickest option.”

Korra reached out and took Asami's hand, gripping the other woman's fingers firmly. “Asami, if anyone can turn this place into a home it's you. You told me back at Kwong's that you didn't want to return to the mansion, and I understand your reasons. So you already know what you want and I know how you like building new things.”

“True,” Asami laughed. “I've had to resist showing you the design blueprints for the building.”

“I would love to see them,” Korra said.

“They are in... um...” Asami pointed towards a wooden door at the end of the short corridor that ran away from the top of the stairs.

“So...”

“Korra, I...” Asami released Korra's hand and shuffled nervously at the top of the stairs.

“Should I...”

Asami reached out again and her fingers trailed down Korra's arm, gently tracing the sleeve of her girlfriend's dress. “I know we said we were going to take things slow,” she began.

“We did,” Korra agreed, drawing closer to Asami.

“This wasn't my plan for this evening.”

“Plans change,” Korra said softly.

Korra was now close enough to Asami that she could feel the warmth radiating off her body. Her engineering mind wondered if that was because Korra was a firebender, or because her own desire for Korra was so strong that she was burning up. She looked into Korra's eyes and felt herself melting under the gaze of those twin blue orbs. “Please stay,” she whispered.

 

* * *

 

 

The distant sound of a ship's horn echoing across the harbour was the first thing Korra heard as she woke the next morning, followed by the persistent low rumble of traffic carried up from the streets of the busy city, something she never experienced while staying at Air Temple Island. She slowly dragged her eyes open, grumbling into the pillow she was clutching.

Still holding onto the pillow, she propped herself up on one elbow and looked around the room. The space next to her in the bed was empty and while Korra could still feel lingering warmth from where Asami had slept curled up next to her, her girlfriend was nowhere to be seen. Korra felt a brief pang of disappointment that Asami wasn't there to greet her, but the sound of a shower running came from behind a nearby door and she realised that was likely where Asami was. She wondered how long she had slept, the bright sunlight filtering past the lace curtains covering the glass door leading out onto the balcony suggested it was mid morning at least, but she couldn't recall exactly when they had finally fallen asleep.

The distant blaring of the horn sounded again outside, and Korra's brow furrowed in annoyance. Pushing the pillow to one side, she crawled to the edge of the bed and fell off onto the floor, dragging the sheet that had been covering her onto the floor with her. The chilly stone floor of the apartment pressing against her skin was a sudden shock and she clambered to her feet, blinking in the sunlight streaming through the curtains.

Wrapping the sheet tightly around her shoulders, Korra walked over to the glass doors leading onto the balcony and pushed the curtains back so she could peer outside. The view from the balcony was quite impressive and she could see out across the rooftops of nearby buildings, all the way down to the distant harbour. A familiar blue and white ship was just passing beneath the Silk Road Bridge and the horn sounded again.

“Varrick,” Korra groaned, recognising the familiar lines of the custom built luxury ship.

That mystery solved, she stumbled back to the bed and fell face down into the soft mattress, the sheet slipping away to pool on the floor. She grabbed the pillow again and hugged it tight around her head to shut out any further sound. She only meant to rest her eyes for a few moments before getting up and finding Asami, but the bed was just so comfortable that Korra slipped away and was soon sleeping soundly again.

She woke to the gentle touch of Asami's lips pressing against her shoulder. “Are you awake?” Asami asked.

“Good morning,” Korra murmured, shifting slightly, but making no move to leave the comfortable warmth of the bed.

“Time to get up, Korra,” Asami said.

“Just a few more minutes,” Korra muttered. “Still sleepy.”

The bed shifted as Asami sat down next her and whispered in her ear, “if you don't get up I'm going to have to tickle you.”

“You don't play fair,” Korra complained, rolling over so she could look at Asami. The engineer was dressed in her work clothes, although her jacket wasn't buttoned, her dark hair was still damp from the shower, and she was missing her makeup. Not that any of that mattered to Korra, and a warm smile spread across her face as she gazed lovingly up at her girlfriend.

“You slept in,” Asami said, her fingers brushing an errant strand of hair away from Korra's face.

“I must have needed the rest,” Korra said, reaching out to capture the hand brushing through her hair and pull it down closer to her lips so she could kiss Asami's fingers.

A faint blush crept across Asami's cheeks. “I think we both needed the rest,” she said.

“Maybe we should just stay in bed,” Korra suggested, stroking Asami's fingers with her thumb as her lips trailed across the back of her girlfriend's hand.

“I would love to, Korra,” Asami said. “But we both have responsibilities and people depending on us. You have Wu's farewell ceremony to attend and I have a company board meeting soon that I can't miss.”

“I'd nearly forgotten about that,” Korra groaned, releasing Asami's hand and slumping back into the bed. “Will you be at the train station to see him off as well?”

Asami shook her head. “I can't, I have too much to do at the office today. Aside from the meeting, there is also piles of paperwork I need to finalise and sign off on for several major government contracts Future Industries is bidding on as part of the expansion of the city. Then there is all the normal day to day stuff I have to catch up on. My assistant has been trying to ease me back into it, but there is so much to catch up on.”

“Then when can we see each other again?” Korra asked.

“Whenever we want, Korra,” Asami said. “We are both adults, we don't need to ask anyone's permission. If you aren't busy tonight how about you come back here around seven and I'll make you dinner?”

“Wait, you can cook?”

“Korra, I lived by myself in my old apartment for three years so yes I can cook for myself quite well now. After all, it's not that difficult, you just follow the steps set out in the recipe and combine the correct measure of ingredients and heat at the correct temperature and you get food. Compared to reassembling a satomobile engine from its component parts with no manual it is quite easy.”

Korra frowned. “Then why did I prepare all the meals when we were in the spirit world.”

Asami smiled and leaned forward to plant a gentle kiss on Korra's lips. “Because you are a sweet, thoughtful girlfriend,” She said. “Now go and have a shower and get dressed, I'll drive you back down to the harbour and we'll see if we can't find a water taxi to take you over to Air Temple Island. You might still be able to get back before Tenzin sends out a search party to find you.”

“Oh spirits,” Korra said, rolling off the bed leaping to her feet in a sudden panic. “I nearly forgot I promised to meet with him and Raiko before Wu's farewell ceremony.”

“We still have plenty of time,” Asami said as Korra ran naked around the bedroom gathering up her scattered clothing. “We can even get something to eat on the way if you like.”

“Yes please,” Korra said, her arms full of clothes. “Um... I'll be right back.”

Asami smiled contentedly to herself as she watched Korra walk through the door leading into the bathroom, admiring the toned muscles of the Avatar's back. She decided that she could get used to waking up to this.

 

* * *

 

At the bow of his luxury yacht, Iknik Blackstone Varrick, the self-titled Master of the High Seas, was finishing his morning Varri-calisthenics with a last flurry of activity. Breathing deeply, he reached out to pick up a warm towel from a tray held by a waiting servant before striding across the deck to the table where his wife, Zhu Li, was sorting through a pile of paperwork, a frown creasing her forehead.

“So how is it looking,” he asked, picking up a glass of fresh fruit juice from a tray held by another servant.

Zhu Li looked down her glasses at him. “It's a mess,” she said.

“Well we must have some assets left.”

“Some, but not enough to bid on the Fire Nation contract. We have five ships left in our fleet, which is not even enough to service our current contracts, let alone expand.”

“Well if Varrick/Moon Global Industries is going to rules the waves again then we need more ships. What happened to our old fleet?”

Zhu Li flicked through a pile of paperwork until she found the documents she was searching for. “It looks like Raiko confiscated most of them,” she said.

“What! That thief.”

“Well, you were a wanted criminal on the run from Republic City justice at the time,” Zhu Li reminded him.

“That didn't give him the right to confiscate my fleet. What did he do with them?”

Zhu Li consulted her paperwork again. “A couple were added to the United Republic fleet, but most were sold off cheaply to other companies, along with most of our other major assets, aside from those outside United Republic territory that we have already reclaimed of course. Future Industries bought the majority of them, initially to haul their products to the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes, but they are now running regular shipping routes instead.”

Varrick ran his fingers along his thin moustache as he considered this news. “Future Industries you say,” he said. “Well it might be time we paid a visit to our old friend Asami. It is time to execute operation make me...”

“Us...” Zhu Li cut in.

“Right, that's what I meant, operation make us rich again.” 

 

* * *

 

 

Hidden in the shadows of a ruined office of the fourth floor of one of the damaged buildings on the western edge of the old Downtown district two men dressed in green overalls crouched out of sight behind a broken wall. After watching the luxury yacht cruise into the harbour for several minutes, the shorter of the two men lowered the binoculars he had been using and turned to his companion. “Get on the radio,” he said. “It looks like he has arrived at last.”

“Are you sure it is him?” the second man said, looking up from his meal of instant noodles.

“Oh yes, it is definitely Varrick,” the first man replied. “Call it in and then we can get out of here and get a proper meal and bed at last.”

As his companion abandoned his noodles to work the controls of the bulky field radio, the first man planted his feet firmly on the floor of the office and reached out with both hands and used his earthbending to shift several large pieces of rubble into the hole in the wall of the office, blocking their hiding spot from view once more.

 

* * *

 

 

Korra breathed a sigh of relief as the water taxi pulled up at the dock at Air Temple Island as it appeared that Tenzin hadn't quite reached the point of sending out a search party for her. The temple remained calm and serene, with two of the Air Acolytes busy sweeping the stone pathways clear of dirt and debris and a third performing a morning meditation. The only other person in sight was Jinora who sitting cross-legged on a meditation mat just across from the dock, idly flicking through the pages of a newspaper. After thanking the captain of the water taxi, Korra left the dock and headed for her room to change out of her dress.

She had barely taken two steps along the dock before some tall bushes near the courtyard were pushed aside and Naga's massive head poked out. Seeing her mistress on the docks, Naga leapt from her hiding place and ran down to the stairs to the docks, jumping up and licking Korra's face with her pink tongue.

“I wasn't gone that long, girl,” Korra said with a happy smile, hugging her oldest friend, while at the same time trying to push the polar bear dog's mouth away from her face to avoid unnecessary slobber.

Naga licked her again, before lowering her head to sniff at Korra's dress and then look up at her mistress with a questioning expression on her furry face.

“I'll see if Pema has something for you in the kitchen,” Korra promised her.

That seemed to satisfy the polar bear dog who barked happily and walked beside Korra as she left the docks and headed up the stairs towards the path leading to the female dormitory.

Jinora looked up from her newspaper as Korra and Naga passed her in the courtyard. “Dad's looking for you,” she said.

Korra groaned. “Is he mad?” she asked.

“He hasn't quite reached the point of scouring the city for you,” Jinora replied. “Although he did ask Kai to go and get Oogi ready.”

“Right. Um... I'd better go find him then.”

“You have time to get changed,” Jinora said. “He's in his study meditating at the moment and I'll tell him you are here if he comes out.”

“All right, thanks Jinora,” Korra said, taking a step towards the path leading to her room.

“Did you and Asami have a nice dinner?” Jinora asked, before Korra could depart.

“Very nice,” Korra replied with a half smile, before she hurried off towards her room in the female wing of the temple, Naga following closely behind.

Jinora watched Korra depart and then she smiled to herself as she carefully tore a small article and accompanying picture out of the newspaper and tucked it into her robe. Folding the newspaper, she placed it on the ground before rolling up her mat and carrying both back towards the main building of the temple.

Halfway there she was met by a worried looking Tenzin, who was carrying his glider staff and was scouring the skies as if looking for something. “Where is Kai?” he asked when he spotted Jinora walking towards him.

“You sent him to feed and saddle Oogi,” she reminded him, before adding, “Korra is back.”

Tenzin's eyebrows shot up as he considered the news. “She is? Well it's about time. I don't know why that girl didn't think to phone us to let us know where she was.”

“I'm sure she just forgot,” Jinora said.

“First a holiday to the spirit world with Asami that only we found out about as they were almost on the boat leaving the island, and now she is out all night partying.”

“Um...” Jinora began, shuffling her feet. “Would you like me to go and find Kai?”

“Yes, tell him to hurry up with Oogi, we need to head off soon. I'll go and check on Korra.”

Jinora nodded and handed the meditation mat and newspaper to one of the acolytes before rushing off to towards the Sky Bison Caves.

Tenzin tugged his beard in frustration, torn between making sure Kai and Jinora behaved and checking on Korra. He decided he could do both if he was quick and headed for the female dormitory. Entering the building, he stepped around the massive polar bear dog resting in the hallway and knocked on the door of the room assigned to Korra.

“Just a minute,” Korra called.

Several loud banging sounds came from inside the room, followed by what Tenzin could only imagine was someone hopping around on one foot. His brows furrowed as time passed and he had reached out to knock again when the doors slid open and a slightly out of breath Korra looked out, now dressed in her normal everyday clothing. “Good morning,” she said cheerfully.

“The morning is nearly over,” Tenzin said in a stern voice. “We have to meet with Raiko in less than an hour.”

“Plenty of time then,” Korra said. “I just have to feed Naga and then I'll be ready to go.”

“Meelo already fed her earlier,” Tenzin said, scowling at the polar bear dog.

Korra looked over at Naga who covered her face with her paws. “Naughty girl,” she said, reaching out to ruffle Naga's fur.

“We missed you at breakfast this morning,” Tenzin said as they walked out of the dormitory, Naga following behind and bounding about enthusiastically.

“I had breakfast with Asami on the way back here,” Korra said. “We stopped at the golden tower and had noddles from a street vendor there.”

“I see, well as long as you have eaten. A healthy balanced diet is essential to maintaining good health. I do worry that you might be neglecting your training though.”

“I have been training with Asami and I'll catch up on anything I missed while we were away,” Korra said, stopping near the centre of the courtyard as she remembered something. “Um... I just have to go and tell Pema something, I'll be right back.”

Tenzin frowned again. “All right,” he said. “I'll go and see what is keeping Kai and I will meet you back here in ten minutes, no later. We don't want to keep Raiko waiting.” He then turned and strode towards the Sky Bison caves.

 

* * *

 

 

“I'm not convinced,” Kai said as he reached down to finish tightening the straps around Oogi's middle.

Jinora frowned and thrust the newspaper cutting out at him again. “You can't be serious,” she said. “They are obviously dating.”

“All that shows is that they just went to dinner,” Kai said, looking down at the black and white picture of Asami and Korra leaving Kwong's Cuisine again. “Even the article only talks about Asami's dress. You are going to have to do better than that.”

Jinora placed her hands on her sides and frowned at her boyfriend. “You just don't want to admit I am right.”

“That's not it at all,” Kai said, as he adjusted the length of the reins attached to the sky bison's horns.

“It's obvious,” Jinora argued. “They went away for nearly two weeks on a holiday together and after only two days back they are having dinner together?”

“They are friends, they can have dinner together.”

Jinora eyed her boyfriend. “At Kwong's?”

“Maybe,” Kai said, shrugging. “Asami is rich, she probably eats at Kwong's all the time.”

“I'm going to prove this to you,” Jinora said, scowling. “You are not getting out of taking me to the movers.”

Kai laughed again and took Jinora into his arms, bending down to kiss the young airbending master. “If you can prove it to me by the end of the week, I'll not only take you to the mover's, but I'll also buy you a meal at Kwong's as well,” he said.

Jinora looked up at her boyfriend and smiled wickedly. “I hope you can afford to back up those words once I prove you wrong.”

Any further conversation was cut short by the sound of loud footsteps on the path leading down to the cave. The two airbenders sprung apart and Kai quickly bent over the strap he had been tightening, trying to look busy. “It looks like Oogi is good to go,” he said in an overly loud voice, just as Tenzin entered the cave, eyeing both of them suspiciously.

“About time,” he muttered. “Jinora, head back and help your mother. If you see Korra, make sure she meets me in the back courtyard immediately.” As Jinora nodded and ran off up the path, Tenzin turned to Kai. “Kai, I need you to take lefty and head out to the military camp east of the city and find Bumi and bring him back to the Central Train Station by midday.”

Kai nodded, and hurried over to fetch the saddle for his own sky bison, realising that he had little time to spare if he was going to make the long trip out to the United Forces camp beyond the city limits and return in time. As Kai worked, Tenzin used his airbending to leap onto Oogi's back and after a quick “yip, yip,” he flew the sky bison out of the cave mouth and around towards the courtyard to meet Korra.

 

* * *

 

 

Pema looked up from her work at Korra entered the kitchen through the back door. “There you are,” she said. “Did you see Tenzin, he has been looking for you all morning.”

“I just ran into him,” Korra replied. “He has just gone to get Oogi and we are heading off to meet with President Raiko soon.”

“Good, I'll just get the packed lunch then,” Pema said, pushing a bowl into Korra's hands. “Here, hold this for a second.”

Korra looked down at the bowl and was about to stick a finger into the mixture and taste it when Pema snatched it back and pushed a small basket of food into Korra's hands instead. “This is for our lunch,” she scolded. “If you haven't had breakfast there is some fruit in the bowl over there.”

“I had breakfast,” Korra said. “Although a couple of pieces of fruit might be good as well. Um... anyway I just came to say I won't be here for dinner again tonight.”

“You are going out again?” Pema asked, concentrating on stirring the mixture in the bowl.

“More staying in,” Korra said. “Asami is making dinner and has invited me over if that's all right.”

“Of course it is,” the older woman replied, looking up from her work and giving Korra a pleasant motherly smile. “You go and have fun, I'll smooth over everything with Tenzin.”

“Thanks, Pema,” Korra said, grabbing an orange from the fruit bowl and balancing it on top of the basket as she left the kitchen. As she headed back towards the courtyard, her thoughts strayed to Asami and she wondered if her girlfriend was having a more interesting day than she was.

 

* * *

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

 

It was late morning by the time Asami finally parked her dark-blue satomobile in her private garage at the Future Industries headquarters. Several of her employees called out friendly greetings as she hurried past the main assembly line, but she was running too late to stop and chat with them so settled for a quick nod or wave to each as she passed. After the destruction of the Future Industries Tower in the Downtown district, Asami had moved back to her father's old office located in the main satomobile factory. It was smaller, lacked the attached workshop and the dozens of other improvements she had made to her custom-built office, but for now it was all she had so it would have to suffice until something more permanent could be built.

Sliding open the carved wooden doors leading into her office, Asami walked over to the large desk and took her seat in the luxurious custom-made leather chair that had been thankfully been salvaged out of the ruins of the tower. She brushed back her hair, took a deep breath and looked down at the piles of paperwork cluttering her desk, wondering where to start first. When she had left for her date with Korra the previous evening the desk had nearly been empty, but now there were several new blueprints from the research division, a large model of a new biplane design the company had worked on for over a year, and the pile of paperwork in her in-tray was three times higher than when she had left. She stifled a yawn, picked up her pen and pulled the first piece of paperwork off the top of her in-tray.

“Late night?” a cheerful voice asked from the door. Her assistant, Seiko, entered the room carrying a pile of yet more paperwork, today's copies of the three major newspapers, and balanced on top of all that, a tray holding a steaming pot of tea, two cups, and a plate of biscuits. The young fire nation woman also had a cheeky grin on her face which Asami knew from nearly three years of employing Seiko as her assistant meant that she had learned something new to tease her boss about.

Somehow balancing everything she was carrying in one hand without spilling a drop of the tea, Seiko plucked the tray from the top of the pile and deposited it at the edge of Asami's desk. She then dropped the paperwork on the top of Asami's in-tray and finally placed the newspapers down in the centre of the desk.

“Anything I should know about in the papers today?” Asami asked, briefly glancing at the front page of the Yuan News, her favourite of the three major papers, which as always Seiko had placed on top. The front page today was a discussion about the upcoming investment opportunities in Ba Sing Se after the end of Kuvira's empire which Asami knew she'd want to read through as soon as she had time.

Seiko busied herself preparing a cup of tea for Asami as she ran through the important articles in the newspapers. “The Yuan news has an article on page four covering the loss of our shipping contracts with the water tribes and it includes a brief paragraph about a company called Moonlight Shipping which has apparently won the contracts off us. I've informed Nutaraq and he is looking into them and he might have something more in time for the meeting. There is a two-page spread on pages twelve and thirteen that looks at our new satomobile models, and the editorial also briefly mentions the opening of the satomobile factory in Ba Sing Se next month. There is little of interest today in the United Daily News, unless you want to catch up on the latest rumours on the teams getting ready for the next pro-bending season, which they are assuring everyone will still be starting on time this year. Their front cover and several other pages are covering Price Wu's farewell ceremony, but there are some nice articles in the fashion section as well if you want to catch up on the winter fashions this year.”

“And the Republic News?” Asami asked, accepting a cup of tea from Seiko and taking a sip. The Republic News was the city's best-selling newspaper, but it rarely ran any stories that would interest Asami.

“Nothing much there either,” Seiko said. “Our advertisements for the new satomobile models are in this issue, well every issue this week actually, and that's about it... oh, apart from a very nice picture on page thirty-eight of you and Avatar Korra leaving Kwong's last night.”

Asami's cup paused just as it was about to touch her lips. “Show me,” she said in a carefully neutral tone, replacing the cup in the saucer.

Seiko's smile widened as she opened the newspaper to show her boss the picture the reporter had taken the previous evening. “You make a very cute couple,” she commented.

Asami read through the article, noting with some relief that the reporter was mainly commenting on her new dress and seemed to have missed her relationship with Korra completely. Still, it was the first picture of them as a couple of reach the press and she knew it wouldn't be long before other reporters picked up on the relationship and she couldn't predict what the reactions of the press might be or how it would affect them. She looked up at her assistant. “How long have you known?” she asked.

While Asami had read the article, Seiko had poured herself a cup of tea, picked up three of the sweet biscuits and taken a seat in one of the two chairs positioned in front of Asami's desk. “A while,” she said, sipping the tea.

“Are we that obvious?” Asami asked.

“Not at all,” Seiko said. “Remember, I'm your assistant. I organise your entire life so I can spot what others might miss.”

“Like what?” Asami asked. “I thought we had kept everything between pretty quiet.”

Seiko reached out and plucked two invoices off the top of the pile of paperwork and placed them in front of Asami. She tapped the first one with her finger. “You spent more on this dress than you did on clothing for most of last year. And this one is an invoice from Kwong's for a private romantic table for two. I need signatures on those by the way.”

Asami signed off on the invoices and passed them across the desk. “Make sure Kwong's invoice comes off his loan.”

“Of course,” Seiko said.

“And you said you've known for a while, these are all from last night.”

“Well I don't want to give away all the secrets of my special deductive powers just yet,” her assistant joked as she dunked one of the biscuits into her tea. “But it is very obvious to anyone that knows you that you care about Avatar Korra and I have worked closely enough with you over the past three years that I can read between the lines and work out why. ”

Asami looked concerned. “Well if you know, how long before everyone else does.”

“Is it a problem?” Seiko asked. “I know you'll get a lot of additional press coverage, but we can probably turn that into a positive thing for the company. I can call Biao up from marketing if you want and perhaps we can start a whole new Avatar themed product line, water tribe style clothing, stuffed polar bear dogs for the children, that sort of thing.”

“Don't you dare,” Asami said. “And no, it isn't a problem, I don't think it is anyway. I just don't know exactly what our relationship is yet.”

“I think I understand,” Seiko said. “When I started dating Rina I wanted to keep it secret as well, although that was mostly because she's an insane fire bender and my father was a staunch equalist supporter. We got over that eventually, but the Avatar... that would have been a challenge to explain to Dad.”

Asami glanced over at the far wall where a large framed photo of her father was hanging. “My father did change some of his views before the end so he may have been happy for me eventually, but I don't think I could have ever told him about Korra the way he was.”

“To both our fathers,” Seiko said, raising her teacup in a toast.

A timid knock came from the door as they sipped their tea. Both women looked up to see a junior clerk standing at the door. “Sorry for interrupting,” he said. “The rest of the board has assembled in the meeting room Ms. Sato.”

“Let them know I'll be there shortly,” Asami replied. The clerk bowed and hurried out of the room to deliver the message.

“Do you want me there?” Seiko asked, placing her cup back on the tray.

Asami thought for a moment. “Yes, but first I need you to organise two things for me.”

Seiko pulled a small notebook and a pen out of a pocket and flipped the notebook open to a blank page. “What are they?” she asked.

“First I need you to organise some more builders to work on my apartment.”

“I think we have some new hires recently arrived from the Fire Nation,” Seiko said.

“No, I don't want anyone new,” Asami said. “Move the new hires into the crew working to refurbish the Four Elements for Raiko and swap some of our older employees over to my apartment.”

“And the second?” Seiko asked.

“I need you to do some shopping for me,” Asami replied, pulling a folded piece of note paper out of her own jacket pocket. “I'm... um... cooking dinner for Korra tonight and I won't have time to buy everything I need.”

“I'll take care of it,” Seiko said, taking the sheet of paper off Asami and glancing through the list of ingredients. “It might take me a while to get some of these, supplies in some shops are a bit low at the moment, especially for imported goods.”

“Do your best,” Asami said. “I'll see you in the meeting room if you get back in time.” Asami picked up the model of the new biplane off her desk and tucked it under her arm as she headed for the meeting room.

 

* * *

 

A republic city police airship slowly meandered its way along the edge of the ruined Downtown district, taking a route along the rim of the crater around the new spirit portal. Crouched behind a counter in an abandoned and looted furniture shop, two men in green overalls observed the passage of the airship carefully, while making sure they stayed out of sight.

“Beifong has stepped up patrols,” the taller of the two commented.

“There is some event at the train station today,” the shorter man said. In addition to his overalls, he was also carrying a heavy backpack containing their field radio and some other gear they did not want discovered by the Republic City authorities.

“Looks like they are moving off at last,” the taller man said, as the noise of the airship's engines faded towards the west. “Lets go.”

Clambering back to their feet both men left the cover of the looted shop and walked calmly across the street towards the Pro-Bending arena. Only a few shops and businesses has survived the destruction in Downtown, mostly west and east of the spirit portal, so there were few pedestrians about. However, a number of vehicles were on the road that followed the water's edge so they were careful not to look out-of-place. To any casual observers the two men were simple workmen.

Reaching the water's edge, they took a narrow set of stairs leading down to the water and as the sound of another airship patrolling overhead began to grow louder they quickly moved under one of the wharfs, hidden from view. A small speedboat was waiting for them there, with a man dressed in a long hooded coat standing nearby smoking a long pipe. He had the hood of his coat pulled up over his head and this hid most of his face from view, so the two men were only able to the lower third of his face and the only distinguishing feature he possessed was a long, thin moustache that drooped down on either side of his mouth until it was well below his chin.

“Get in,” the man said, his voice betraying his disinterest in his passengers. He tapped out his pipe on the wall and stuck it into a pocket in his coat.

The two men climbed into the back of the speedboat, careful to make sure the backpack was secure. Their driver waited until the police airship had moved away before he jumped down into the boat, gunned the engine and turned the boat east, away from the centre of the city towards the industrial district. By the time the next airship passed by they were gone and the speedboat was just one of dozens crisscrossing the waters of Yue Bay.

 

* * *

 

For more than two decades the Four Elements Hotel, located close to the heart of Republic City, had been the premier hotel in the city, boasting luxuries that even many world leaders were lacking in their palaces. But after the destruction of much of the heart of the city and the sudden expansive growth of the spirit wilds around the new spirit portal the hotel was now covered by spirit vines and half of its ten stories were now inaccessible and were now home to a colony of spirit creatures. However, it was one of the few building that was still intact enough to be considered usable, so it's owners had temporarily leased the lower five floors of the building to the Republic City government to serve as the new City Hall until a replacement could be built. The explosion of spirit energy which had ripped open the new portal in the heart of Downtown had also laid waste to the old City Hall, leaving the city's government homeless until this solution was found.

Carefully guiding Oogi between several towering buildings, Tenzin landed on the footpath opposite the Four Seasons and parked the sky bison between two satomobiles. The police officers on duty outside the building glanced at each other, but didn't make any comment other than to snap off quick salutes as Tenzin and Korra walked past them into the hotel lobby. President Raiko had claimed a richly appointed conference room on the second floor as his new office and he was waiting there with General Iroh when they entered. Iroh was sitting stiffly in a seat next to Raiko in full military uniform and he nodded respectfully to Korra as she entered.

“At last,” Raiko said, gesturing towards two empty seats placed on the other side of the table to Iroh. Several clerks were hovering about the room, but as far as Korra could tell their main roles seemed was to move sheets of paper from one desk to another and then a few minutes later move them back again. She watched them flutter about the room for a several minutes as Raiko and Tenzin discussed tedious matters on the rebuilding of city infrastructure. After a while her attention drifted outside and she amused herself watching two playful dragonfly-bunny spirits dance around in the air playing a game with a scrap of brightly coloured wrapping paper.

“Korra!” Tenzin's disapproving voice called out, dragging her attention back to the meeting.

“Sorry,” she said. “What was that?”

“I was saying,” Raiko said, glaring at her. “That we have reports that almost all divisions of the Earth Kingdom army have now withdrawn back to their barracks, including all four of the surviving mecha tank divisions. The rest of the divisions are still in the process of standing down, but we expect the complete demobilisation of Kuvira's army should be completed by the end of the month in line with the terms of the agreement.”

“That's good,” Korra said.

“Unfortunately not as good as we had hoped,” Raiko said. “General, if you can expand on what you were telling me earlier.”

“Yes Sir,” Iroh said. “While the regular volunteer troops have abided by the terms of the surrender agreement, Kuvira did conscript a number of... auxiliaries who have unfortunately reverted to their old ways.”

“Bandits,” Tenzin commented.

“Yes,” Iroh said. “There is a significant increase in bandit activity in almost every province between here and Ba Sing Se. Not all provinces have problems with these bandits, Omashu remains peaceful as do a several of the eastern provinces, so it is nothing like the chaos after the death of the Earth Queen, but it is enough of an issue that someone will need to take care of them.”

“So you want me to stop them?” Korra asked.

“No I need you to stay here,” Raiko said. “General Iroh will be dealing with this matter. General, continue please.”

Iroh nodded. “Following President Raiko's request, and with Prince Wu's full support, I have dispatched the second division of the United Forces to Ba Sing Se. The majority of these troops have already departed via train and we plan to deploy them in major settlements along the train lines to assist the local Earth Kingdom forces in maintaining order and keeping trade routes open. The remaining regiments will be travelling with Prince Wu when he departs today, including the elite thirty-first regiment who will be taking on the role of the Prince's bodyguards.”

“I'm also sending a small force of airbenders led by Bumi to accompany Prince Wu,” Tenzin cut in.

Raiko frowned. “I didn't authorise that.”

“Prince Wu made the request,” Tenzin told him.

“I'm not happy about this, Tenzin,” Raiko complained. “I don't like weakening our forces any more than I have to. We lost too many in the war as it is.”

“The airbenders are not your forces, Raiko,” Tenzin said, his brows furrowing in annoyance at the president's assumption. “We are independent of any nation.”

“As is the Avatar,” Korra muttered under her breath, although by the way Raiko's face clouded he had obviously heard her comment.

The clatter of metalbender armour interrupted the rising argument as Lin Beifong and two of her officers marched into the room. “The motorcade is ready, Mr President.”

“Thank you, Lin,” he said. “Well, we will have to continue this discussion at a later date. Avatar Korra if you can meet with General Iroh after the ceremony I think we can find the best use for you during these uncertain times. Tenzin, a pleasure as always.”

They all rose out their chairs and the president left first, following Lin and her officers towards the waiting vehicles. With an apologetic half-smile in Korra's direction, General Iroh followed him out of the room.

“I'm not sure it's a good idea to antagonise the president,” Tenzin commented as soon as they were alone.

“I don't like the way he is assuming that I will be working solely for him,” she said. “That's not the role of the avatar.”

“True,” Tenzin said, stroking his beard. “However, do remember that the president doesn't have to invite you to these meetings and does so out of courtesy to your position as Avatar.”

Korra sighed. “I know. I guess I thought they would be more interesting. Still, he has to understand that if there is trouble in the world it may be best if I am out there to help fix things, not stuck here in Republic City.”

“So does that mean you will be going with Prince Wu to Ba Sing Se?” Tenzin asked.

“No I'm staying here for now,” Korra said.

“I see,” Tenzin said. “Well, we had best get back to Oogi if we hope to make it to Wu's ceremony in time for the speeches.”

Korra groaned. “I don't have to give one do I?”

“Between Raiko and Wu I doubt you would even get a chance,” Tenzin replied, leading the way out of the hotel and across the road to where they had left Oogi.

 

* * *

 

As the speedboat manoeuvred between the pylons of the bridges crossing from the eastern industrial part of the city to the Downtown district, the driver cut the engine and relied on the boat's forward momentum to slowly glide towards the water's edge. The rattle of a street trolley passing overhead on the bridge masked any noise the boat was making as it slowly edged towards a narrow sewer tunnel hidden under the bridge. The gate that normally blocked the tunnel entrance had been left unlocked and open, so the speedboat was able to pass into the tunnel and glide along the dark waters of the sewer until it reached a small stone landing.

A middle-aged woman, also dressed in green overalls like the two passengers, was waiting on the landing. “Get back to base,” she told the two men as they climbed out of the boat and on to the landing. “The sergeant wants to talk to you.”

Both men exchanged a look then nodded to the woman and trudged off along a narrow stone path that ran along the edge of the sewer tunnel. The woman turned to the man in the speedboat who was sitting back in his seat and had pulled out a pouch of tobacco to fill his pipe. “Are you interested in another job?” she asked.

“I haven't been paid for this one yet,” he said.

She tossed a pouch of coins down on the seat next to him and the man quickly snatched it up and looked inside before tucking the pouch into an inside pocket in his coat. “We are paying twice as much for the next job,” she said.

“What is it?”

“We just need you to drive the boat. I'll let you know where once we know where we are going. Are you in or not?”

The man cleared his throat and spat into the sewer. “Why not,” he said. “I've got nothing better to do.”

“Good,” she said. “Stay here and I'll be back shortly.”

The man watched her leave, his lip involuntarily curling in distaste. He cursed his bad luck and spat into the sewer again before settling down in his seat to enjoy his pipe.

 

* * *

 

A line of armoured police officers stood behind a metal barricade that stretched across the steps leading up to the entrance to the City Central Station, Republic City's largest and most modern train station. Since its recent upgrade by Future Industries, the station was able to handle hundreds of passenger and freight trains every day, carrying people and goods to not only to all the major cities in the territories that made up the United Republic, but also to cities across the Earth Kingdom including Ba Sing Se, Omashu, and beyond. However, today the station had ground to a halt as Prince Wu, the heir to the throne of the Earth Kingdom, prepared for his departure and the police force had deployed in numbers large enough to prevent any trouble.

On the steps behind the police lines, Wu was singing a tuneless song to a mated pair of badger-moles that were travelling with him to Ba Sing Se as a loan from the Republic City zoo, while nearby his bodyguard, Mako, was glaring at anyone who dared to come too close to the police barrier. On the other side of the police lines the small group of well wishers waving Earth Kingdom flags were vastly outnumbered by the horde of press who had gathered for the upcoming speeches from President Raiko and Prince Wu. The occasional flashbulb from a press camera was going off at regular intervals as photographers tried to catch the prince's antics as he came to the end of his song.

Near the edge of the press pack, Kuang was adjusting the lens on his best camera. The photographer doubted he would make much from today's event, but there was always the slim chance that one of his pictures would catch one of the dignitaries dozing off or otherwise embarrassing themselves which would get him a nice fee from one of the papers, or failing that a fee from the dignitary in question to avoid the picture being ever being published.

“Kuang!” a voice hissed from edge of the gathering.

The photographer looked up and grimaced when he saw Shang waving at him. The reporter was widely considered by the rest of the press community to be a no good weasel-snake, and he even slightly resembled one with a bald head, small darting eyes, a wispy moustache, and a long thin neck. Shang waved urgently at him again and against his better judgement Kuang decided to see what he wanted. The speeches wouldn't start until Raiko arrived so he had a little time to spare.

“You want to get a real exclusive,” Shang said in a low voice, his eyes darting about trying to catch anyone who might overhear.

“I'm busy, Shang,” Kuang said. “If you have something I can use tell me now and stop wasting my time.”

“Not here,” Shang said, gesturing for the photographer to follow him over toward the edge of the building where the shadows of the roof would hide them from view.

Cursing his own curiosity, Kuang followed the reporter away from the press pack. “What is it,” he demanded when Shang finally stopped walking.

“I know a way into the station,” he said. “But it's a two-man job.”

“Sounds risky,” Kuang said. “If Beifong catches us...”

“She won't” Shang said. “If we do this right then she'll never even realise we were ever there and we can both get the behind the scenes scoops. You take the pictures, I'll write the story and we'll sell it to the highest bidder. Just think of all the yuans this is going to bring us both, exclusive pictures from behind the police lines.”

Kuang considered this. He knew that as soon as any photos reached the paper, Beifong would know that someone had sneaked behind the police lines, but he also knew that the papers would probably not give him up to the police chief if the photos sold enough extra copies and if they got something juicy enough then a thick stack of yuans might be featuring in his future and right now he could do with some extra cash, he was in deep enough debt with the Triple Threats as it was. “All right,” he said. “What's the plan.”

Shang opened his coat slightly to expose a metal crowbar strapped to his side. “I need your help to get past a gate,” he said.

“All right,” Kuang said. “Lets get this over with, but I warn you if Beifong catches us I'm going to wring your scrawny neck.”

The two men hurried around the side to the building, slowing to a casual walk as they headed towards the bridge over the train tracks. Two police officers stationed on the far side of the building watched them pass, but neither seemed to suspect anything suspicious. On the other side of the bridge, Shang ducked into an alcove and pointed toward a metal door build into one of the large stone pylons at the end of the bridge.

“Tell me we aren't going up there,” Kuang groaned, looking up at the massive arch of metal that held up the bridge.

“There is a crawl space,” Shang whispered, opening his coat to tug the crowbar free. “Now quickly, get this door open before those coppers decide to come take a look.”

Realising that this was the point of no return, Kuang hesitated for several long moments before he took the crowbar of Shang and dug it into the stonework around the lock. Muscles straining he heaved on the crowbar and there was a grinding, crunching sound as a chunk of stone around the lock cracked and then broke away. Kuang dug the crowbar in again and broke away some more pieces of stone and then the door sprung open.

“Come on,” Shang hissed, “And bring that with us we will need it.”

Aware that he had just broken into a government building, Kuang followed his now partner in crime, taking a few moments to push the door closed. However, with the lock broken it would no longer stay closed, so he looked around the room and found a crate that he was able to push up against the door to hold it shut. It wouldn't fool anyone who took a close look or even tried the door handle but he hoped it would never come to that.

From the room, a rickety ladder led upwards into the bridge superstructure. What followed was a nightmare climb, especially for someone of his hefty build, as the two men first climbed to the top of the pylon and then crawled out across the metal arch, careful to stay out of the line of sight of the police officers stationed down below on the road outside the station and also those on the platforms of the train station itself. Kuang did pause for half a minute at the top to take his backup camera out of his bag and snap a few shots of the prince's train waiting for him on the far platform, the only line that was currently equipped to handle the Earth Kingdom's new style of trains.

On the far side of the bridge, the arch reached downwards towards another pylon which Kuang noticed also happened neighbour the main station building. Half crawling, half sliding the two men made their way down the arch until they were on top of the pylon and from there it was quick, but extremely nerve-wracking jump until they both stood on a window ledge just wide enough to hold them. “All right,” Shang said. “Can you get that window open.”

“Yeah I think so,” Kuang replied, using the crowbar again to jemmy open the window. Shang pulled it open and both men crawled into the dusty room beyond.

“This is it,” Shang said. “We should have a good view of the platform from here.”

“Where are we?”

Shang pointed towards two massive metal shapes bolted to the floor in the centre of the room. “This is where they store the backup generators that power the station's phones and emergency lighting. According to my source, no one ever comes here so we are safe. We can sneak out after the prince has gone and they'll never know we were here.”

Kuang crossed to the window overlooking the main platform and was pleased to see that as Shang promised they did have a good view of the platform. He opened his bag and took out his main camera and his backup camera and checked them thoroughly. He hoped this was worth it, because if any of the police officers caught them here, he doubted he would see the light of day again. Still, if Lin Beifong did lock him away for good, at least that might solve his gambling debts.

 

* * *

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

* * *

 

The boardroom was full by the time Asami arrived and she was pleased to see that all the heads of the various divisions that made up her company had managed to arrive on time this week. Placing the model of the biplane on the table, she rolled it along the polished wood surface towards the centre to attract their attention and then took her seat at the head of the table. As soon as the men and woman gathered around the table realised their boss had arrived they ceased their individual conversations and turned their attention to Asami.

Asami looked over at a balding, middle-aged man dressed in an expensive dark blue suit who was sitting halfway along the table. “Nutaraq, do you have anything more on this Moonlight Shipping company Seiko said had won the water tribe shipping contracts off us?”

“Not yet, Ms. Sato,” Nutaraq replied. “I've learned that their main office is here in Republic City, and that the company was established just over three weeks ago, but I can not find a phone number listed anywhere for then. I looked up their registered address at the record office and sent someone around to there this morning but the building appeared to be closed up and no one answered his knock.”

“I find it difficult to believe that a newly founded company was able to simultaneously win two major contracts off us this easily. We should have heard something, and why didn't our clients contact us to let us know they were putting the contracts up for tender?” Asami said.

Nutaraq pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his brow. “Sorry, Ms. Sato, I don't know what to say. I was as surprised by this as you are.”

“How much will this cost us?” Asami asked.

The head of shipping and transport pulled a document out of a folder sitting in front of him on the table and quickly consulted a list of figures. “A little over two hundred thousand yuan in annual profit,” he said, after tallying up the figures. “However, more concerning is that these lost contracts now leaves us with an additional sixteen ships and crews we have to pay and maintain while they sit idle.”

“How about we move them to other routes? Maybe pick up the slack to the Fire Nation?”

“Sorry, Ms. Sato,” Nutaraq said, mopping his brow again. “Since we opened our new satomobile factory outside the Fire Nation capital most of our ships travelling on those routes are running half empty. I had hoped to move several of our ships off that route before this happened.”

Asami frowned and exchanged a pointed glance with Kotaro, her accountant, who shook his head and made a note in his ledger. “So exactly how many ships and crews do we have idle at the moment?” she asked.

Nutaraq swallowed nervously. “Twenty-three, Ms. Sato.”

“At full pay?”

“Yes, Ms. Sato.”

Asami grimaced and glanced over at Kotaro again. “We stand to lose a considerable amount of yuans as a result of this,” the accountant said, tapping his pen against his ledger as he spoke. “And after your overly generous offer of low-interest loans to a number of Republic City businesses, which as you will recall I advised against, our cash reserves are now reaching critical levels.”

“We've already been over that, Kotaro, I'm not changing my mind.” Asami turned back to her head of transport. “Can we sell the vessels?”

“Perhaps,” Nutaraq said. “But who would buy them in the current market. Since the Earth Kingdom developed their high-speed train network, the shipping industry worldwide has lost business and a lot of money and now our factory in the Fire Nation has commenced operations as well, Future Industries no longer has the transport requirements we once did.”

Asami sighed in frustration. “All right, leave the problem with me and I'll explore some possible options to solve it. Meanwhile, keep working on finding out who is behind Moonlight Shipping and as soon as you find out it's Varrick come back and see me.”

“Um... Varrick, Ms. Sato?”

“He is the only one with the contacts to pull off something like this without us learning about it first and his wife is Zhu Li Moon which gives us the origin of the mysterious Moonlight Shipping. It's obvious that weasel-rat is trying con us again.”

“I'll get right on it Ms. Sato,” Nutaraq assured her. “If Varrick is responsible, I'll track him down.”

Dismissing her head of shipping, Asami looked over Szeto, the old family friend who had worked with her farther to design and build the first biplanes and remained with the company after Hiroshi Sato was imprisoned. Although he had initially wanted to quit, she had convinced him to stay on and run the airport and factory in the mountains outside town and he had flourished in the role, turning the small factory into one of the company's more successful divisions. “How is the Jade Dragon prototype proceeding?” she asked, waving a hand toward the scale model of the biplane at the centre of the table.

Szeto scratched his greying beard and bent forward to pick up the biplane model. “Prototype one has completed full testing successfully and passed everything we threw at it,” he said. “We are currently finalising adjustments for prototype two which we hope to begin fight testing this week. So far I am happy with progress and I believe we will be able to begin commercial production within four to six months.”

“And the rest of the division?”

“Sales on our luxury airships are still very low, only three in the past quarter. We cannot match the Cabbage Corp prices on their budget models and frankly I wouldn't like to try, those things are a crash waiting to happen. However, sales of the latest model of biplanes are very good. In the past year we have sold five wings to the Fire Nation, two to the United Forces, three to the Earth Empire, although I guess that should be the Earth Kingdom again now. We have also sold one hundred and twenty-six non-military biplanes to private buyers and sales of parts and fuel has reached a record high. Our maintenance and armament contract with the United Forces remains extremely profitable as well.”

Mentally estimating the profit in her head, Asami nodded in satisfaction. “Good work,” she said. “And those blueprints I asked for?”

“Right here,” Szeto said, picking up a pair of rolled up blueprints and passing them down the table.

Asami looked towards the far end of the table where a woman in grey overalls coated in grease and dirt was trying to make her short hair lie flat on her head. “How is that special project I asked you to look into going, Rina?” Asami asked.

The woman looked up and squinted down the table as she tried to focus her amber-coloured eyes on Asami, before she remembered she was missing her glasses and reached out to pick them up off the desk in front of her. Once she could see, she started digging through a pile of blueprints and papers scattered across the table in front of her, knocking several off the table as she searched. She ducked under the table and finally came back triumphantly clutching one of the blueprints.

“Rina?” Asami asked again.

“Sorry, Asami... I mean Ms. Sato,” she said, spreading the blueprint out on the table and using several teacups belonging to the other department heads to hold it open. “We managed to recover one of the generators Varrick used to generate the EMP pulse. I've examined it and I am now fairly certain we have tracked down all the modifications he made so we can produce a fully functional prototype based off his original design. General Iroh of the united forces has given us permission to run a test on a surplus mecha tank at the United Forces base south of the city next week. If that is successful then we will modify our current off-the-shelf generators to sell to them as EMP weapons, provided President Raiko authorises the purchase of course, and I am sure he will as I know the general is very keen to add this type of weapon to his arsenal. We are also exploring alternative means of delivery for the weapon, including as bombs carried by our biplanes.”

“And the new warship designs?” As Rina started hunting around for another blueprint, Asami said, “Never mind, give the blueprints to Seiko later. Just tell me how we are progressing.”

“Planning stage only,” Rina replied. “What the United Forces is asking for is very different from the old Fire Nation designs used in the past. The hull design that you designed for us to work with...”

“Perhaps we can discuss theory at a later stage,” Kotaro cut in before the engineer could begin one of her long-winded explanations of her work. “We still have to go over the budget for next quarter.”

There was a collective groan from everyone gathered at the table. Asami held up her hand to for silence. “We'll look at the budget in a moment, Kotaro,” she said. “First I want to hear from Lin-wei and Biao.”

Lin-wei, a solidly built middle-aged woman dressed in a dark-green suit sitting near the middle of the table nodded when Asami mentioned her name. “Construction is doing well,” she said. “I expect to pick up most of the government contracts for the rebuilding. Our crews and equipment are the best in the city and no one else can provide the number of skilled earthbenders we can without making a loss on the deal. I gave Seiko the profit estimates last night so they should be on your desk.”

“Thank you,” Asami said. She looked down the table at a young man dressed in a smart and extremely expensive business suit sitting opposite Rina. “Biao, what do you have for us this week?”

He nodded and stood up, walking to the far end of the boardroom where he had placed an easel and several large pieces of cardboard. Bringing the easel back to the end of the table, he placed the first piece of cardboard on it. “Asami Sato branded haircare products,” he said, pointing to the cardboard sheet, which featured a reproduction of Asami's face in the centre of the circular cogwheel logo on it. “We sell them at a premium and market them to all the young women out there who want hair as good as yours.” When Asami glared at him across the table, he spread his hands wide and added, “We will make a fortune in Republic City alone and we can expand the range to include makeup, jewellery, and clothing. Just look at today's Republic News, you wear a new dress and the half the women in the city want copies. The market is there and waiting to be milked like the proverbial pig-cow.”

“Put together a proposal,” she said. “I don't like the idea one bit, but if this downturn in the shipping industry continues we might need the extra revenue.”

Kotaro gave her a questioning look across the table and she nodded. The accountant adjusted his glasses and then opened his thick leather-bound ledger and began to run through the details of Future Industries multi-million yuan budget, using his pen to trace his way down the page line by line. Despite his sleep-inducing voice and arrogant manner, Kotaro was exceedingly good at his job, so Asami poured herself a cup of tea and leaned back in her chair to sip it while she listened to him discuss the complex financial dealings of her company.

 

* * *

 

 

Korra covered her mouth to hide a yawn as she stood at Tenzin's side looking out over the crowd of press and well-wishers who had gathered to see Wu leave for Ba Sing Se. While Raiko's speech had been relatively short and to the point, Prince Wu had talked non stop for nearly two hours and she wasn't the only one who was beginning to doze off. She couldn't even recall what he had talked about, having tuned out his voice out long ago. Instead, she was treating the event as an exercise in meditation, trying not to fall asleep while standing perfectly still and upright, but unfortunately she still wasn't that great at meditation. Tenzin had apparently already mastered this technique as he hadn't moved once since they had arrived.

A ragged cheer from the crowd signalled something had finally happened and she looked over to the podium to see that Wu had stopped talking and was now waving goodbye to the crowd and blowing kisses. President Raiko, General Iroh and their police escorts didn't stick around to say goodbye and instead headed straight back down the stairs towards the waiting satomobiles that had bought them to the ceremony. As the president departed, Mako and Lin Beifong escorted Prince Wu over to the two badger-moles who had sat through the nearly three-hour long ceremony just calmly watching proceedings from the top of the stairs. Korra and Tenzin also walked across to join Wu and his new pets, or minions, Korra wasn't sure how to classify the massive badger-moles. The photographers in the crowd below were still taking the occasional picture and she could hear the pop of their flashbulbs going off, but the rest of the crowd was starting to break up as the people headed back to their jobs or homes and the reporters who had been here to cover the event hurried off to file their stories, each hopeful of getting a front page in one of tomorrow's papers.

While Tenzin spoke to Lin, Korra greeted Mako who was watching over Wu while the prince was busy performing the intricate arctic-hen mating dance, or at least it appeared that way to Korra. Whatever it was, he had charmed the badger-moles who were tapping their massive clawed feet to match the Wu's dance moves.

“How is the arm?” she asked, noticing that Mako no longer had his left arm in a sling.

Mako flexed his fingers and then flicked his hand open to summon a small flame. “Nearly back to normal,” he said. “The healer has given me a cream to use on it so hopefully the scars won't be too bad. But, how have you been, I didn't know you and Asami were back.”

“We've only been back for a couple of days,” Korra said. “Tenzin has kept me so busy I've barely had a moment to myself and I sure Asami is the same with her company.”

“You should have waited a couple more weeks and we could have all come with you,” Mako said. “Made it the full team avatar, exploring the spirit world, just like old times.”

“Um... yeah...” Korra said. “It was a bit of a short notice decision and you had your arm injury to recover from and Bolin was going to Zaofu with Opal, but maybe next time we can all go.”

“Sound like a plan,” Mako said.

“So, are you looking forward to the trip to Ba Sing Se?” Korra asked.

“I guess so,” Mako said. “I know Grandma Yin will be happy to return home, especially as she will be Wu's personal guest and get to stay in the royal palace, which is her lifelong dream. I'm hoping to return to Republic City as soon as the elections are over and the states start to transition to the new democratically-elected leaders. Wu's role as Earth King should end at the same time and he is also coming back here and is still talking about pursuing a career as a singer.”

“So will you be giving up the lifestyle of Mako, bodyguard to the Earth King and going back to plain old Mako, ace detective?”

“I don't know any more,” Mako said. “Lin has already said she would love to have me back and once that would have been all I wanted, but Wu hasn't been that bad lately, I am almost going to miss him. Although... he has been acting a bit strange since last night, especially when I asked him how his farewell dinner went.”

“He has?”

“Yes, it's really weird. If I was interviewing a suspect I'd say he had something to hide, but this is Wu, what could he be hiding?”

Korra thought back to the dinner date at Kwong's the previous night and the brief conversation they had with Wu. “Mako...” she began to say.

“Mako!” Wu cried out. “Help!”

“Looks like duty calls,” Korra said, breathing a sigh of relief at the interruption.

Mako groaned in frustration, but still hurried over and cupped his hands to give Wu a boost so he could climb up on the back of the badger-mole. As soon as the Prince was securely sitting on top of the badger-mole he gave one last wave to the dozen or so well-wishers and press who still remained and started to sign a tuneless song about badger-moles which made no sense to Korra, but the creatures seemed to respond to this and both started moving towards the station entrance. As the badger-moles passed through the archway that formed the entrance to the station with Wu still clinging to the back of one of the beasts and Mako walking along beside in case the prince tumbled from his seat, Korra walked over to join Tenzin and Lin.

“I'll be glad to see the last to him,” Lin was saying as Korra walked up.

“Now, Lin, he hasn't been that bad,” Tenzin said.

“He hasn't,” Lin said. “But the potential for trouble from Kuvira's old allies has run my officers ragged these past few weeks. Fortunately they have all been false alarms so far.”

“Raiko told me her forces were abiding by the surrender terms,” Korra said.

“Kuvira has been,” Lin said. “She's sitting in her nice platinum-lined cell in Zaofu and not causing any trouble and thankfully almost all of her empire's conscripted troops have been sticking to the peace plan as well, but there are a few who have given up so easily.”

“The bandits?” Korra asked.

Lin shook her head. “No, while I've heard they are a problem, it's not just them. Some of Kuvira's top ranking lieutenants have vanished and almost everyone involved in running the prison camps has disappeared as well. I like to think they are just hiding out somewhere to avoid being sent to prison, but there are rumours of trouble brewing. Let's just say I'm glad you are back with us at last.”

“Well if Raiko gets his way it doesn't look like I'll be leaving again any time soon,” Korra said. As she finished speaking she noticed something moving above the station and shaded her eyes so she could scan the sky.

“That should be Kai and Bumi,” Tenzin said, raising one hand to wave to the young airbender who was circling his sky bison down towards them.

Kai waved back and guided Lefty into a landing at the top of the station steps. In addition to Kai, there were four other passengers on the sky bison, but the first to disembark was Bumi who leapt down and enveloped Korra is a friendly hug. “Good to have you back,” he said. “And speaking of holidays remind me to tell you about the time my shipmates and I ended up stranded on Whaletail Island sometime.”

The other three passengers were Ryu, who was using his airbending to unload a number of bags and other supplies, and two young airbender women Korra vaguely recognised as being part of the group of airbenders they had rescued from the Earth Queen three years earlier. The taller of the two women used airbending to carry herself to the ground and then turned around and reached up to helped her companion down off the sky bison's back.

“So what's the job, little brother,” Bumi asked. “You said you wanted us to go to Ba Sing Se?”

“Bumi,” Tenzin began, placing a firm hand on his brother's shoulder. “I need you and your team to travel to help guard Prince Wu while the Earth Kingdom undergoes this transition.”

“Guarding the prince eh?” Bumi mused, rubbing his chin. “Well good thing I have this elite group of volunteers, we are perfect for the job.”

Korra looked over at Ryu who had finished uploading the baggage and was now leaning up against Lefty's flank dispassionately regarding proceedings. “You volunteered?” she said.

“My mother is coming to visit next week,” he said with shrug.

“You aren't looking forward to visiting Ba Sign Se then?” Korra asked.

“No,” he replied.

“Well we are,” the taller of the two airbending woman who had come with Bumi said. She bowed respectfully to Tenzin. “Thank you for this opportunity, Master Tenzin.”

Tenzin bowed in response. “You are welcome, Lei,” he said.

“You are from Ba Sign Se?” Korra asked, recalling that both women had been members of the Earth Queen's conscripted force of airbenders.

“Not quite, I'm from outside the main city,” Lei explained. “My family works on one of the farms within the outer wall. Jing-mei is from the upper ring in Ba Sign Se though.”

Jing-mei, a shorter woman whose dark hair was bound up in a valuable jade and gold hairpiece, a piece of jewellery common among Ba Sing Se's more affluent citizens, nodded in agreement. “This is our first time home in three years,” she said.

“You must be looking forward to seeing your families then,” Korra said.

Both women exchanged a quick glance. “Not really,” Lei said. “Both of our families turned us in to the Dai Li when we got airbending.”

“Oh...” Korra said. “I'm sorry.”

“It's all right,” Lei said. “Everything worked out for the best and we are both looking forward to seeing our homeland again after so long away.”

“All right team,” Bumi said. “Enough chit chat, let's get on this train and on our way to Ba Sing Se. We have a prince to protect.”

As the airbenders collected their baggage there was a sudden loud crashing sound from inside the station, quickly followed by a distant cry of “Wu down!” As everyone turned to look, a badger-mole came running out of the station entrance, scattering several Republic City police officers and breaking through the metal barricade before stopped at the foot of the stairs and started to tunnel into the road using its earthbending.

“I'll lure it back with my trusty flute,” Bumi cried, patting down the sides of his airbender wing-suit before remembering he didn't have a pocket large enough to hold his flute and he started unpacking one of his bags looking for it.

“Are you sure sending Bumi is a good idea,” Korra whispered to Tenzin as they stood to one side and watched the metalbending police officers using their cables to subdue the huge badger-mole.

“I trust Bumi to lead this team,” Tenzin whispered back. “And the other three are the only ones who volunteered to go along.”

“Well it looks like they are going to have an interesting trip,” Korra said.

Tenzin could only nod in agreement.

 

* * *

 

 

“Tell me you got that picture,” Shang whispered.

Kuang nodded, steadying his camera on the window ledge so he could take another picture of the sobbing prince clinging to his bodyguard. “I got it,” he said. “If we are lucky I think I might even have captured the exact moment he toppled off the badger-mole.”

“Front page material right there,” Shang said, rubbing his hands together. “We are going to be rich, my friend. Now, what's the bodyguard's name, he looks familiar?”

“That's Mako,” Kuang said. “The former pro-bender who used to date the Avatar before he joined the police force.”

“Oh yeah, I remember,” Shang said. “And speaking of the Avatar, here she comes now. Get a shot or two of her, good pictures of the Avatar are always worth a few yuans and I might be able to include a short article as well.”

Kuang turned to look at the station entrance and snapped a picture of the small group of airbenders led by Avatar Korra. He checked his camera and was pleased to see he still had plenty of film left, so he took another couple more pictures of Prince Wu.

 

* * *

 

 

“It was horrible, Mako,” Wu was saying as Korra, the airbenders, and Tenzin arrived at the platform where the train to Ba Sing Se was waiting to leave. Wu and Mako were standing near the luxury passenger carriage, while two carriages further along the platform the United Force troops who were accompanying them to the Earth Kingdom capital were just loading the last of their supplies. Mako's family, who were also making the trip with the prince of Ba Sing Se, were in another passenger carriage further back and another carriage was set aside for the two badger-moles and it's wide loading ramp was lowered awaiting the arrival of the second of the creatures.

“What happened?” Korra asked.

“Wu fell off his badger-mole,” Mako said.

“Not just fell off,” Wu sobbed, maintaining his tight hold on Mako's coat. “It threw me off and ran away. It didn't like my singing.”

“Maybe it didn't like the other trains,” Korra said, “Badger-moles do hear and see by vibrations in the stone, and a train rolling along the tracks may have disturbed it.” She pointed down the tracks where the engine from one of the regular city trains was shunting carriages about as it prepared for the reopening of the station once the prince departed.

“I didn't think of that,” Wu said, letting go of Mako and smoothing out his bodyguard's clothes. “See, Mako, it wasn't my singing after all.”

Mako frowned at Wu in frustration. “I didn't say it was.”

“It's all right, Mako, we all make mistakes.”

“But, I didn't make...”

“Prince Wu,” Korra cut in. “It's time to get aboard your train, Ba Sing Se awaits.”

“What about poor Baobei?” the prince asked. “If the train scared him then maybe I should sing to him again to comfort him.”

“I'm certain Police Chief Beifong and her officers will make sure the badger-mole is aboard safely,” Tenzin said.

“Oh... good then,” Wu said, stepping on the train. He paused in the doorway and looked back at his bodyguard. “Come along, Mako.” he said.

“Good luck,” Korra said as she gave Mako a brief but friendly hug goodbye. “Try to say sane.”

“Thank Korra,” he said with a smile. “I'll see you when I get back.”

“Bumi...” Tenzin began, looking at his brother.

Bumi grabbed him and pulled him close, hugging him tightly. “I'll miss you, little brother,” he said with a tear gleaming in the corner of his eye.

“Are we going yet?” Ryu asked.

Bumi released Tenzin and threw a friendly arm about Ryu's shoulders. “We are going to have so much fun in Ba Sing Se,” he told the young airbender. “There are some taverns in the lower ring a young man like you just has to see.”

“Whatever,” Ryu said.

As the small group of airbenders waved goodbye and climbed aboard the train, Lin arrived with her officers, the escaped badger-mole now trussed up tightly and riding on a platform of rock being levitated off the ground through the combined effort of several benders. With an exasperated expression, she gestured for the badger-mole to be loaded into the special carriage designed to carry the mated pair to their new home at the Ba Sing Se zoo.

That task complete, the train was finally ready to leave and Lin joined Korra and Tenzin as they stood on the platform and waved goodbye as the train pulled away. It quickly picked up speed and headed out along the river flats, travelling along the raised rail line that headed north-east towards the Earth Kingdom, and eventually ran all the way to Ba Sing Se.

 

* * *

 

 

“Yes!” Shang cried, barely able to contain his excitement. He looked over at Kaung who was looking at him with a puzzled expression. “You did get the shot, right?”

“What shot,” the photographer asked.

“What! Tell me you got a picture of Avatar Korra hugging her ex-boyfriend.”

“Oh yeah, I got that,” Kuang replied.

“Yes!” the reporter cried again. “Front page for the Republic News right there. We will be swimming in yuans tomorrow my friend.”

“If you say so,” Kuang said. “Just try to keep your voice down, if Beifong catches us in here...”

“Right, sorry,” Shang said. The reporter sat down on the floor in front of the door to their hideaway and started scribbling furiously in his notebook as he concocted an elaborate story to go with the photographer's pictures.

 

* * *

 

 

Asami had only just returned to her office when her assistant, Seiko, walked back through the door carrying a heavy string bag full of groceries. “You really need to start doing your own shopping, Asami,” she said, placing the bag down near Asami's desk and slumping down in one of the chairs. “I had to go all the way to the Little Water Tribe district to get everything.”

“But you got it all?” Asami asked.

“Yes, of course I did,” Seiko replied. “This should be everything you need to make an authentic water tribe dinner. Um... you do know how to cook this stuff right?”

“Of course I do,” Asami said. “I have a recipe to follow.”

Seiko rolled her eyes, but didn't comment further. “Did I miss anything at the meeting?” she asked.

“Nothing important,” Asami said. “Most of the meeting was taken up with one of Kotaro's budget analyses.”

“Glad I missed that,” Seiko said. “Oh, and do you know that you have Varrick waiting downstairs.”

Asami's eyes narrowed. “No I didn't, he must have arrived during the meeting. Did he say what he wanted?”

“I came straight up here and didn't speak to him,” Seiko said. “But he is sitting in the waiting room with Zhu Li right now reading the Yuan News.”

Asami leaned back in her chair and thought for a moment. “Okay, go downstairs and tell him that I am busy in a meeting and it will be another ten minutes before I can see him. Then go and find Kotaro and Nutaraq and tell them to come down to my office immediately. Make sure Kotaro brings the company asset register with him, I am going to need it. Then, show Varrick and Zhu Li up to see me.”

As soon as Seiko had left the office on her errand, Asami leapt up and hurried about the room picking up any blueprints and other documents that might give up her company's secrets and packing them securely away in the large metal safe she that kept in a corner of the room. The heavy bag of groceries for the meal she planned to cook that evening she tucked behind the desk and then after a final tidy of her desk, she sat back down to await Varrick's arrival.

 

* * *

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

 

* * *

 

The sound of footsteps echoing down the sewer made the smuggler glance up and peer into the darkness that shrouded the tunnel. Soon the woman in the green overalls who had paid him for the last job appeared leading two newcomers along the narrow stone path that ran along the edge of the sewer. The first was an imposing, muscular man wearing leather boots and pants, and over the top of a rugged short-sleeved work shirt he wore a rough leather vest that appeared to be made from the thick, ridged skin of a swamp catgator. A large dagger hung from his belt and he was carrying a green canvas bag slung over one shoulder. By the way the bag dragged down on his shoulder it was obviously extremely heavy, but he didn't seem troubled by the weight. The second newcomer was a thin, wiry woman dressed in a simple green workers outfit and black work boots. She had two leather bandoleers belted across her chest that held a dozen or more small metal darts and the smuggler also noticed three potion gourds hanging from her wide leather belt. Finally, she wore a tattered black hat that covered her short dark-brown hair.

The woman in the overalls tossed him another bag of coins. “Half in advance this time.”

“Where am I going,” the smuggler asked, weighing the bag of coins in his hand.

“Do you know where Future Industries is?”

He nodded. “Yeah, it's not far up river.”

“Good,” she said. “Take these two, go upriver and find somewhere to stay out of sight that has a view of the Future Industries wharf. They will tell you what to do next.”

The smuggler looked less than pleased as he snuffed out his pipe and spat into the sewer again, but he still pocketed the coins and nodded his agreement to the woman.

“You know what to do,” she said to her two companions as they climbed into the boat. Neither said anything and without waiting for a response the woman turned and headed back down the sewer tunnel.

As the smuggler turned the boat around and headed for the exit back out into Yue Bay the woman he decided to call Black Hat removed one of the potion gourds from her belt and began to carefully dip each of the metal darts in whatever vile mixture the gourd contained and then just as carefully replaced the darts back in the bandoleers. The big man the smuggler was now thinking of as Catgator didn't talk or even look at him, instead he had placed one hand on the green bag, closed his eyes, and was doing breathing exercises as if he was mediating. The smuggler pushed the throttle forward and turned the boat out into the open water. As they headed upriver he wondered what he had managed to get himself into this time and if it was really worth the coins he was earning.

 

* * *

 

 

“We should start a newspaper,” Varrick said to Zhu Li as he thumbed through the pages of the Republic News. “Look at this drivel, I could make up far more interesting stories in my sleep, in fact I usually do. Nothing in here is what the people really want to read, oh look here is a picture of Asami.”

“Let me see that,” Zhu Li said, taking control of the paper.

Varrick let her read, while he stood up and walked about the elegantly furnished waiting room. “We'll call it the Republic City Inquirer and only print the news the people want to read, well the news I say that they want to read anyway. It will be like printing money.”

“That's actually not a bad idea,” Zhu Li said, folding up the newspaper and putting it down on Varrick's seat. “But do you know how to run a newspaper?”

Before Varrick could respond, the smartly dressed young woman who had spoken to them earlier walked into the meeting room and bowed to him. “Ms. Sato can see you now, Mr Varrick,” she said.

“Just Varrick, kid, just Varrick.”

The woman sighed. “Very well, Ms. Sato can see you now, Varrick. And I would prefer it if you would call me Ms. Matsuo.”

“Sure, take us to Asami and I'll call you whatever you want.”

The woman rolled her eyes and without further comment turned and walked up the stairs toward the next floor. Varrick and Zhu Li followed, with Zhu Li carrying a slim folder of documents and Varrick walking behind her with his hands clasped behind his back and eyeing off every piece of artwork they passed as if he was mentally calculating its resale value.

“I love what Asami has done with the place,” he said after they had walked up several flights of stairs and turned into a corridor. “It's wonderful how a woman's touch can make a place sparkle.”

“I don't believe Ms. Sato has made any changes to the office furnishings since taking over from her father,” their guide said. She stopped outside a closed wooden door decorated with traditional Earth Kingdom wood-carved scenery. She slid the door open and took a step back so Varrick and Zhu Li could enter.

“Asami,” Varrick cried out walking into the room with his hands out wide as if expecting a hug.

Asami regarded him coldly from the other side of her large desk. Standing to either side of her were two men, one elderly and dressed in an old-fashioned, but very expensive brown suit with a gold watch tucked into his upper waistcoat pocket and a matching gold chain. He was holding a gold pen and a thick leather-bound ledger and had an unreadable expression on his face. The second man was younger, although he was still older than Varrick, and was wearing a far more modern dark-blue suit. Unlike the first man he appeared almost nervous, with tiny beads of sweat forming on his brow.

“Sit down, Varrick,” Asami said, indicating the chairs in front of her desk.

As Varrick sat down and began to peer at the paperwork sitting on Asami's desk, Asami stood and reached out to shake Zhu Li's hand. “Zhu Li, good to see you again,” she said with a warm smile.

“And you, Asami,” Zhu Li replied with an answering smile.

“Did you have a nice honeymoon? Ember Island wasn't it?”

“Among other places, yes,” Zhu Li replied. “Did you have a nice vacation in the spirit world with Korra?”

“Very nice,” Asami replied. “Shall we begin?”

Zhu Li nodded and took the second seat in front of Asami's desk. She opened up the folder she carried and handed Asami the top piece of paper.

“What is this?” Asami asked, quickly reading the page and then handing it over to the older of the two men standing behind her.

“We would like to make a very generous offer to buy back the ships that Raiko stole off me,” Varrick said.

“We are offering more than you paid for them,” Zhu Li added.

“I can see that,” Asami said. “But why would we want to sell? With the growth in Future Industries over the past three years our shipping requirements have grown considerably.”

“It's our understanding that you recently lost two contracts with the Northern and Southern Water Tribes,” Zhu Li said. “By my calculations that would leave you with at least fifteen surplus vessels at the moment.”

“It would,” Asami said. “However, it's my belief that the winner of those particular contracts does not have the ships to service them, so all I have to do is sit back and wait and the contracts will most likely revert to Future Industries.”

“That would be costly, not to mention a risk as you have already lost the contracts once,” Zhu Li said. “You would also still have to pay maintenance on the ships and wages for the crews.”

“Which Future Industries can afford to pay,” Asami said, before smiling again. “However, because we are old friends I am willing to make a counter offer.” She held out her hand and the older of the two men behind her opened his ledger and withdraw a sheet of paper and handed it to Asami. She turned it around and slid it across the table to Zhu Li. “This is what I'm prepared to offer you,” she said.

“Let me see that,” Varrick said, picking up the sheet of paper and quickly scanning the contents. “What! That's not what we wanted.”

“No it's not,” Asami agreed.

“Perhaps you'll give us a minute alone to discuss this?” Zhu Li asked, wrenching the sheet of paper out of Varrick's hands.

Asami nodded. “There is a meeting room next door that you can use. Seiko will show you the way.”

As soon as Varrick and Zhu Li left the room, Nutaraq leaned forward. “This is a bad idea,” he said. “We can't sell...”

“Quiet,” Asami said, holding up a hand.

Seiko entered the room and slid the doors closed behind her. “They are in the meeting room,” she said.

“Thank you,” Asami said. “Can you go downstairs and order some tea for everyone.”

As Seiko nodded and left the room again, Kotaro leaned closer to Asami and said in a low voice, “Your father installed several listening devices in that meeting room if you want to hear what they are discussing, I believe the controls are in your bottom drawer.”

“I know,” Asami said. “I had them removed two years ago. If I win, then I'm going to win fairly.”

“Fairly or not this is still a mistake,” Nutaraq said. “If you sell them our entire fleet then we will have nothing left to carry our own cargo. I know I said in the meeting that our need for cargo space had gone down since our new factory opened in the Fire Nation, but we still need some ships.”

“Varrick will carry our cargo,” she said. “That's the beauty of this deal. He wants our ships, so I'm going to make him pay a fair price for them and also force him to sign a contract to carry our cargo at the same time. He'll get what he wants, not for the bargain price he wants, of course, but it's still a good deal for him and we get a nice injection of cash that will allow us to expand Future Industries elsewhere.”

“But he'll have control of virtually the entire global shipping industry again, and at a price that is still well below what it would have cost him to buy those ships elsewhere. Then, once the contract expires we are at his mercy.”

Asami smiled. “That's what I'm hoping he thinks as well.”

“I hope you know what you are doing,” Nutaraq said, shaking his head. “I don't like putting the entire shipping needs of our company in Varrick's hands again.”

“I am also finding this to be a rather strange move on your part, Ms. Sato,” Kotaro said. “True, we don't lose much on the deal as we bought those ships very cheaply after Raiko confiscated them, but it's not as good a deal as we could get. We have him over a barrel, surely it is time squeeze him for every yuan.”

“Don't worry,” Asami said. “I plan to destroy him, but I'm doing this my way.”

 

* * *

 

“What is Asami thinking,” Varrick asked as he paced around the meeting room, pausing only once to look at a large landscape painting on the wall.

“She is offering us the opportunity to buy out the entire shipping division of Future Industries, every vessel and shipping contract they current control will revert to us. It's an... interesting offer.”

Varrick stopped and threw up his hands, “but for what price.”

“Quite a lot,” Zhu Li admitted. “It is a very good price, but it's still more than we can easily afford right now... although if we offer her a trade of some of our property holdings we might be able to work out a better deal. Still, it will focus the majority of our resources back into shipping for the near future which could be risky.”

“Tell her no,” Varrick said. “We can get ships elsewhere.”

“No we can't,” Zhu Li said. “We've been through this, that is the heart of the problem we are facing. We took on those contracts without the ships we need to run them, we have to take this deal, or get Asami to agree to our offer, or we lose the contracts.”

“So we lose the contracts,” Varrick said. “We will still make a profit overall.”

“Yes, but lose the good will of two entire nations. That could end up costing us more in the long run.”

“So you think we should take the deal?”

Zhu Li rubbed the bridge of her nose where her glasses were chafing her skin. “I'm not certain,” she said. “Asami obviously knows that we won the contracts off her and if she was able to prepare this deal before we arrived then she was ready for us. Which means this deal is something that is going to benefit her as well, which is true it does, it's good for both our companies. I'm just worried it is too good.”

“Too good?”

“Yes, she is offering us her entire shipping division and although she is asking us for more than we would have offered, it's still well below what it would cost to buy those ships elsewhere and all she wants in return, aside from this rather large sum of money, is for us to commit to carry her company's cargo for the next ten years and she is even willing to pay a very reasonable rate per tonne for that as well.”

“Can we get more?”

Zhu Li frowned. “Maybe. I might be able to work in a small annual increase to the shipping rate. That would sweeten the deal considerably for us, as Asami would be one of our largest clients for shipping.”

Varrick resumed pacing, his hands clasped behind his back. After a nearly a minute of this he stopped and grinned at Zhu Li. “Let's do it,” he said.

She nodded. “I'll work out what properties we can offer her in lieu of cash.”

“That old warehouse on the waterfront in Sasago can go,” Varrick said. “That place is nearly falling apart. Then there is the ostrich-horse farm outside Omashu I bought after I won twenty thousand yuans betting on that race, they haven't bred a single winner in nearly five years, which now that I think about it is probably why Zolt was so keen to sell. I guess I can give up the Varricake bakery as well, although I will miss that sweet taste of Varricake goodness.”

“Raiko confiscated that three years ago,” Zhu Li said patiently. “He took pretty much everything in the United Republic that had your name on it, I think the bakery is making sweet buns and bread now.”

“What!” Varrick said. “Well, we'll have to put a stop to that, everyone loved my Varricakes and they were willing to pay good yuans for them. Once we finish setting up my newspaper, I want that bakery back.”

“I'll look into it,” Zhu Li said. “But first we need to work out exactly which of these out-of-the-way rat-traps we can trade Asami for these ships. We may not have enough money left to buy either a newspaper or a bakery.”

 

* * *

 

“At least we have one thing to thank Kuvira for,” Wu said, as he sat stretched out in a comfortable chair in the dining room of his carriage enjoying a glass of his favourite cucumber-aloe water. The train had left the suburbs of Republic City and was now travelling south-east along the coastline. The distinctive cone shape of Mount Makapu was just appearing in the distance as the train rounded the mountains, but most of the land they were passing through was farmland, part of the rich fertile coastal plain that fed the vast population of Republic City. The occasional farmer or domesticated animal could be seen in the fields as they passed, but there were no major settlements in sight of the railway.

“It will still take three days to reach Ba Sing Se,” Mako said from his seat by the window.

“Oh?” the prince said. “I thought this route went straight there.”

“It does,” Mako said, holding up the map he had been studying since they had left the city so Wu could see. “However, it is still a long way. We have to travel south along the coast before we cross the new rail bridge at Sasago, then we go east through the Flame Forest and skim along the edge of the great divide before turning south again towards Serpent Pass. We make a brief stop there to refuel and resupply and then it's across the pass and on to Ba Sing Se.”

“Is it true there is a giant serpent that lives in the pass?” Wu asked.

“Strange you should ask that,” Bumi said. “When I was in the army...”

“Not now, Bumi,” Mako said. “No, Wu, there are no giant serpents living in the pass, it's just called Serpent Pass because it's so narrow and curves like a serpent.”

“Well if you aren't going to listen to my stories, I'm going to find someone who is,” Bumi said. “Coming Ryu?”

“Whatever,” the younger airbender said. But he still climbed out of his seat and followed Bumi as the older airbender headed towards the doors that linked the carriages together.

“You certainly have a way with people, Mako,” Wu said, waving his empty glass about hoping to attract the attention of the servant assigned to the carriage.

Shortly after Bumi and Ryu had departed the doors to the next carriage rattled as someone tried the doorknob and Mako leapt to his feet, suddenly alert for danger. Lei and Jing-mei also looked up from the book they had been studying together, but neither airbender appeared concerned. The door opened and instead of assassins on there way to harm Wu, the only people to enter were Mako's grandma Yin and his cousin Ty.

“What are you doing here,” Mako asked, looking pointedly at Ty, who he had tasked at looking after his extended family during the trip back to Ba Sing Se. Ty shrugged and looked helplessly at Mako.

“The other carriage smelled of wet fur and I was hungry,” Grandma Yin said. “So I thought I'd come and visit my grandson Mako who wouldn't want me to sleep in a carriage smelling of wet fur.”

“Oh, that must be the badger-moles,” Wu said. He looked over at the servant. “We have two spare rooms here, organise one for Grandma Yin at once and then get everyone another round of drinks.”

“You are a such a nice Prince,” Grandma Yin said, bowing low to Wu.

“Well I might take our bags along to our room,” Lei said. She bent down and kissed Jing-mei on the cheek before lugging their bags towards the rear of the carriage towards their assigned sleeping quarters.

Wu noticed the exchange between the two airbenders and looked puzzled for a moment, then he leaned forward. “So did you and Lei both date Mako too?” he asked.

“Mako!” Grandma Yin snapped at her grandson, reaching out to slap Mako's arm.

“What?” Jing-mei said, looking surprised. “No, I barely know Mako. Why would you think that.”

Prince Wu looked embarrassed and coughed loudly. “Never mind,” he said. “Um... now where is that drink refill.”

“Here, your majesty,” the servant said, returning with a fresh bottle of cucumber-aloe water and topping up Wu's glass.

Mako's eyebrows furrowed as he digested Wu's words, then just as Wu was taking a sip of his drink, he leaned over and grabbed Wu by his coat. “Wu,” Mako said, his voice betraying the anger he was obviously feeling. “Tell me everything you know about Korra and Asami right now.”

 

* * *

 

“A hundred years of exclusive fishing rights to an oyster bed off Kyoshi Island?” Asami asked. She tapped the page with her pen and looking pointedly at Varrick.

“What can I say,” he said with a shrug. “I was visiting the island and I really wanted oysters for lunch. They serve them with this amazing spicy hot sauce that really brings out the flavour.”

Asami shook her head helplessly and was about to cross that line off the list Zhu Li had given her when a sudden thought came to her. “All right,” she said, “I'll leave that one on there.” She moved down to the next line. “You can't offer me this,” she said.

“Why not?” Varrick asked.

“Because you didn't design the hummingbird mechs.”

“I helped,” Varrick said defensively.

“You helped with one of the wing joints and supervised the construction and then you claimed all the credit when we went to present the plans to Raiko. I did most of the work on that project and you know it.”

“The president assigned both of us to work on them,” Varrick said. “I'm still within my rights to claim a half-share of any future developments of that design.”

“No you aren't,” Asami said angrily. “They were my design.”

“Well we can let the courts decide that if you like,” Varrick said.

Kotaro leaned forward and whispered something into Asami's ear and she sighed. “I won't accept anything less than a seventy-five percent share of the design,” she said.

“We'll take it,” Zhu Li said before Varrick could complain further. “And we'll make up the rest with the tea plantation outside Sasago.”

“Not the tea!” Varrick cried.

“You never drank it again after you bought the plantation,” Zhu Li said.

“I didn't?” Varrick sounded surprised. “I could have sworn.”

“No, that was the special spiced tea from the Fire Nation that you liked.”

“Oh... I see,” Varrick said. He turned back to Asami. “So do we have a deal.”

Asami looked over at her accountant who nodded. “We do,” she said. “I'll have to get a proper contract drawn up by the company's lawyers and we'll need to meet again in a couple of days time to sign it to make it official. But now you are once again the undisputed Master of the High Seas.”

“About time!” Varrick whooped, leaping out of the chair and shaking Asami's hand.

“How about a dinner to celebrate,” Zhu Li said. “I believe Kwong's has reopened on a boat in the western side of the harbour.”

“Yes, it has,” Asami said. “I had dinner there last night, but tonight I have other plans. Perhaps after we sign the contract we can all have dinner to celebrate.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Varrick said, shaking Asami's hand again.

“Come on, Varrick,” Zhu Li said. “If we aren't having dinner with Asami then it's time we got back to the yacht, we still have to look for a suitable site for that other project we discussed.”

“Oh yes,” Varrick said, rubbing his hands together. “Good doing business with you again, Asami.”

“We will see you in two days time,” Zhu Li said as she led Varrick out of the room.

As soon as Zhu Li and Varrick had departed, Kotaro picked up the sheet of paper listing the properties that they had agreed to accept as part of the deal. “I'll rewrite this and take it along to the lawyers first thing tomorrow morning,” he said, tucking the sheet of paper into his ledger. “I trust you know what you are doing, Ms. Sato.”

“I do, Kotaro,” Asami said.

As the accountant left the office, Nutaraq hovered near the edge of her desk looking nervous. “What about me?” he finally asked.

Asami frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I'm the head of shipping and transport and Future Industries now no longer own any ships. Does that mean I'm no longer needed?”

“Don't worry,” Asami said. “You've done a good job over the years, so I will always have a place for you with Future Industries. I have something planned that I can't tell you about yet that I will need your expertise for, but for now would it be all right with you if I transfer you to Ba Sing Se to run the new satomobile factory we are opening there?”

“That's kind of you, Ms. Sato,” Nutaraq asked. “But it will take some time to organise my family to move and I have no idea where we will stay.”

“Well, thanks to Varrick, we now own two luxury apartment buildings in the upper ring of Ba Sing Se,” Asami said. “Would an apartment there be suitable?”

“Yes, thank you Ms. Sato,” Nutaraq said. “I'll need to speak to my wife, of course, and... well there is a lot to do.”

“Take a couple of days off,” Asami said. “The factory isn't opening for another two weeks so you have some time yet. I'll get Seiko to help organise everything for you.”

After Nutaraq left, Asami poured herself another cup of tea and retrieved one of the blueprints from her safe. After spreading out the blueprint on her desk and weighing down the corners, she picked up her pen and set to work designing the perfect solution to her Varrick problem. As the details of the design began to take shape a smile spread across her face and she said to herself, “I'm going to make that smug bastard obsolete.”

 

* * *

 

“Well that was a waste of time,” Ryu said as he followed Bumi back to the royal carriage near the head of the train.

Bumi looked a little hurt. “The soldiers enjoyed my stories,” he said. “Besides we had to scout out the train for dangerous bandits.”

“There is an entire regiment of elite troops in the next carriage,” Ryu pointed out.

Bumi was about to argue, but then he stopped and held up a hand for silence as he detected an odd noise ahead. Both airbenders listened carefully and they could soon pick out the sound a raised voice from inside the royal carriage. Bumi made a hand gesture to indicate for Ryu to move ahead. The younger airbender nodded in confirmation and reached out to open up the door between the carriages and then leapt through and dropped into a fighting stance.

“I can't believe she never told me,” Mako was shouting as he marched around the dining room waving his hands about.

“What's going on?” Bumi asked the two airbenders walked up to the dining room. Wu and Ty were sitting in chairs sharing a bowl of fire flakes while they observed the firebender's tirade. Grandma Yin was sitting opposite with a puzzled expression on her face and Lei and Jing-mei were sitting together and looking a little uncomfortable.

“Mako is angry that his girlfriends are now dating each other,” Grandma Yin said.

Bumi scratched his beard as he considered this. “So Korra and Asami are dating? Well I guess that explains a lot, but why are you angry about them dating?”

“I'm not angry about that,” Mako said, now a little calmer. “I'm angry they didn't tell me. Korra spoke to me at the station earlier. She stood there and we talked and she still didn't say a single thing to me about her dating Asami. And then I find out she told Wu last night!”

“It's true,” Wu said. “I ran into Korra and Asami at Kwong's last night so I did know... but I wasn't supposed to say anything.”

“See!” Mako shouted. “They were hiding it from me.” He threw his hands up in the air and marched off down the corridor, “I'm going to my room,” he snapped as he left.

“Um... seeing this is all my fault I think I'll just go and make sure he is all right,” Wu said, picking up the bowl of fire flakes and following Mako.

“I'm very disappointed in Mako,” Grandma Yin said. “Upsetting Prince Wu like that, he is just as bad as his grandfather.”

“I'm sorry,” Jing-mei said. “I didn't realise.”

“Nonsense,” Grandma Yin said, walking over to clasp the airbender's hand and give her a friendly pat. “It wasn't your fault, you are both lovely young girls and so pretty, so don't let my grandson upset you. Now how about we all sit down and tell each other nice stories to forget all about this unpleasantness.”

Ryu slumped down in a chair and put his face in his hands. “Oh no,” he muttered. “Not again.”

Bumi looked pleased as he took Mako's former seat near the window, leaning forward with a broad smile on his face. “How about I start and tell you the story of how I single-handedly defeated the dark avatar's entire army of evil waterbenders, dark spirits and mecha tanks armed with nothing but my trusty flute.”

 

* * *

 

 

The smuggler had pulled his speedboat in beneath the loading ramp of a large cargo ship docked at the Future Industries private wharf. While the speedboat would be spotted by anyone who crossed the ramp, the vessel appeared empty of workers at the moment. There was movement from up on the wharf as workers for Future Industries were lining up a number of newly built satomobiles, perhaps for loading on the ship, but no activity on the ship itself yet.

The woman he was calling Black Hat leaned forward and poked the smuggler in the shoulder. When he looked back, she pointed towards a luxury launch with four people on board just leaving the wharf. “Follow that one,” she said in a soft voice. “Get close to them.”

He opened the throttle on the speedboat and they pulled away from the docked ship and went in a wide arc, turning around to fall in behind the launch which was sailing out towards the open water of Yue Bay, obviously heading west past Air Temple Island. Although his speedboat had been built for speed, the launch appeared to be surprisingly nimble and was pulling away from them.

“Closer,” the woman said again and the smuggler complied, flicking a switch on the dash to inject pressurised air and additional fuel into the engine. It was a trick he had developed a few years ago and had used to escape police boats several times, but it was a little risky. Fortunately this time everything worked and his speedboat was soon cutting through the water right behind the launch.

The woman nodded to him and as the smuggler gently turned the wheel to guide the speedboat alongside the launch she stood up at the back of the boat. “Careful,” he said, feeling the boat rock slightly.

She steadied herself with her feet placed carefully on the wooden floor of the speedboat and then she reached up bringing both hands up on either side of her with fingers spread and palms facing towards the bandoleers. The smuggler was busy watching the other boat so he didn't see what happened next, but out of the corner of his eye he saw something flick across the gap between the boats.

The launch had four people on board, two at the controls and two sitting in the passenger seating in the rear and all four leapt to their feet as if stung by a moth-wasp before they stumbled and collapsed on the deck of their vessel. One of the drivers must have pulled back on the throttle as he fell as the launch slowed down immediately and slowly turned into a wide circle until it finally came to a stop in the middle of the bay.

“Closer,” the woman said again and the smuggler turned and slowed the speedboat so it pulled up beside the launch allowing the woman to leap the gap between the boats and bend over to retrieve something from the unconscious crew and passengers. She frowned after she checked the last passenger and started searching around on the deck of the launch as if she was missing something.

Back in the speedboat, the smuggler heard the sound of a zip sliding open and turned to see the big man he had been calling Catgator stand up from the now open bag. Inside the bag were a number of long metal strips bent double. The man gestured and one the metal strips unfolded and flew out of the bag across the gap between the boats and wound itself around the upper body of one of the unconscious passengers.

The smuggler cursed under his breath and turned away to glare at the dash of his boat. The noise of metal strips tearing free of the bag to fly across to the other boat continued for only a few seconds and then Catgator grunted as if he was exerting himself. Shortly after a thump sounded from the back of the boat and the smuggler risked a look back to see one of the other boat's passengers, a familiar looking man dressed in an expensive water-tribe style suit, being lowered into one of the speedboat's seats. The second passenger, a well-dressed businesswoman wearing slightly askew glasses followed, and then Black Hat jumped back to the speedboat.

“Lost one,” she said to Catgator.

“Not important now,” he said.

The woman turned to the smuggler. “Head back as quick as you can.”

He nodded, and turned the speedboat around heading towards the sewer tunnel where he had picked these two up. The smuggler didn't know who the two being kidnapped from the launch were, or why they were important, but working so close to benders after all that had happened in the past few years was giving him a sick feeling in his stomach.

 

* * *

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

 

* * *

 

Wu paused outside the cabin door and for a moment he considered returning to the dining room and rejoining the others, but summoning his resolve he reached up and knocked on the door to Mako's sleeping quarters.

“Go away,” was the gruff response.

Again the prince considered leaving Mako to sulk, but instead he pushed the door open and marched inside. “Are you okay?” he asked, taking a seat on the edge of Mako's bed. Mako was standing next to the bed, leaning up against the wall as he glared out the window at the passing scenery.

“I want to be alone,” the firebender said.

“Sometimes it helps to talk, Mako,” Wu said. “See, I even bought you some flaming fire flakes, they are your favourite right?”

“Wu...”

“I'm sorry I didn't tell you,” Wu said softly. “But Asami and Korra both asked me not to mention anything to you.”

Mako left the window and sat down on the bed next to Wu. “That's what I don't understand,” he said. “Why wouldn't they tell me, we are supposed to be friends. We fought together through everything the world had to throw at us. We were team Avatar, but now... well I just don't know what we are any more.”

“Perhaps they weren't ready to tell you,” Wu said. “Perhaps they were even afraid to tell you.”

“Why would they be afraid?”

Wu shrugged. “Maybe they thought you wouldn't understand.”

Mako sighed and slumped forward. “They are probably right,” He said. “I feel like such a fool, Wu. I dated both of them and now they are dating each other, what are people going to think of me now.”

“The same thing they always think of you, Mako, that you are a brave, strong, and noble man who I'm proud to call a friend. Why do you think I asked for you as my bodyguard when I could have had anyone in the Republic City police force guarding me, because I only wanted the best. No one is going to think less of you now because your former girlfriends dating each other.”

He pushed the bowl of fire flakes into Mako's hands. “Now eat your fire flakes and let's go and rejoin the others, Bumi is telling some wild story about how he saved the world with nothing but his trusty flute.”

“Actually that story is true,” Mako said, accepting the bowl of snacks from Wu. “That really did happen at the end of the water tribe civil war.”

“Well, then all the more reason to hear it,” Wu said. “Now are you coming back or not?”

Mako munched on a handful of fire flakes. “I'll come in a little while,” he said. “I just need to think for a bit.”

Wu stood up and brushed down his coat to straighten out any wrinkles. “Good enough,” he said. “But don't be too long or I'll send Grandma Yin to sort you out.”

Mako laughed at that and then as Wu walked towards the door he looked up, “Wu,” he said quietly. When Wu looked back at him with his eyebrows raised, he added, “Thanks for the support.”

Wu nodded and left the cabin, closing the door behind him and leaving Mako to his thoughts.

 

* * *

 

The smuggler shut off the speedboat engine and allowed the boat to glide into the sewer tunnel before it came to a stop next to the stone ledge again. The woman in the green overalls who had given him the job was waiting for him and she nodded in satisfaction when she saw the unconscious prisoners lying at the back of the boat.

“Take them inside,” she said. “I'll be along shortly.”

Catgator nodded and after slinging his now half-empty green bag over his shoulder he jumped out on to the ledge. He faced the speedboat and stretched both his hands out in front of his body, bracing his feet firmly on the ledge. Then with a grunt of exertion he used his metalbending abilities to lift both prisoners out of the boat at once. The prisoners still had metal bands bent around their bodies and Catgator was able to lift them out of the boat and slowly float them down the tunnel, although the smuggler could see sweat trickling down the side of the big man's face so he was obviously straining his powers to their limits.

“Here,” the woman said, tossing a leather bag to Black Hat. The slim metalbender whose darts had incapacitated the two prisoners bowed and the bag quick a shake. Satisfied with the sound of coins jingling in the bag, she tied it to her belt and followed her companion down the tunnel.

The woman then tossed a much smaller pouch to the smuggler. “Good work,” she said. “If you want more you should stick around, we'll have another job in a day or so.”

The smuggler weighed up the coins and then shook his head. “I'm done,” he said. “I don't work with benders if I can help it.”

As the smuggler pocketed his last payment and sat back down at the speedboat's controls, Black Hat paused and looked back at the woman with one eyebrow raised. When the woman shook her head, the metalbender turned and continued down the tunnel.

“Viper recommended you,” the woman said, squatting down near the boat so the smuggler could hear her above the noise of the boat's engine. “Don't say a word of this or we will deal with you, do you understand?”

“Understood,” he said, before turning the speedboat towards the entrance and roaring away out into the harbour.

 

* * *

 

Asami had been so engrossed in her latest project that she had barely noticed the passage of time. A knock on her door made her look up and she saw her assistant, Seiko, standing at the door looking at her with a questioning expression.

“I'm about to head off,” Seiko said. “Shouldn't you be leaving now as well?” When Asami looked back at her with a confused frown she added, “That dish you said you are making for Avatar Korra will take at least an hour to prepare.”

Asami's eye widened in sudden shock. “Oh no,” she said. “I nearly forgot all about it.”

Seiko laughed. “You'd better get moving then, boss.”

Asami quickly rolled up the blueprint she was working on and tucked it under one arm before snatching up the bag of groceries Seiko had purchased for her earlier and dashing for the exit. Seiko watched Asami leave and then walked into the office. She took a few minutes to straighten up Asami's desk, making sure that all the blueprints and other important documents were put away in the safe, and that the safe itself was securely locked. Then she closed the office door and headed for the exit herself.

“Why was Ms. Sato in such a hurry,” the receptionist inquired as Seiko reached the lower floor offices. “Is there a problem?”

“Ms. Sato is just late for dinner with an old friend,” Seiko said. “I'm the one with the hot date.”

“Isn't that every night?” the receptionist joked.

“Well I am dating a firebender,” Seiko said with a chuckle. She waved goodbye to the receptionist as she walked out the door and headed outside, walking past the assembly line which was still running as the late shift had just taken over from the day shift. She reached the parking lot just in time to see Asami's dark-blue satomobile roar out of parking lot and tear off down the road towards the nearest bridge. Smiling to herself, Seiko climbed into the driver's seat of her own satomobile and drove towards the engine design workshop on the far side of the vast Future Industries complex to pick up Rina.

 

* * *

 

Korra squinted in the bright sunlight as she braced herself for the next attack. The projectile spun towards her and she grimaced as she skidded on the soft sand at the water's edge. The wooden ball she was trying to catch circled around her before swinging back and flying straight between the two wooden poles stuck in the sand behind her. The ball rolled off into the water and started to float out to sea and then a large white blur crossed in front of her as Naga charged across the beach and dived straight in after the ball.

“Yes!” Meelo cried out, pumping the air in triumph. “Meelo sixteen, Avatar Korra three.”

Naga paddled out to the ball and picked it up in her mouth before swimming back to the shore and depositing it on the sand at Korra's feet. The polar bear dog then shook herself furiously and splashed Korra and half the beach with water before walking over to lie down on the warm sand at the edge of the beach. “Thanks a lot, Naga,” Korra said, bending the water out of her soaked clothes and sending it back into the sea.

“Giving up yet, Avatar?” Meelo taunted her from the other end of the beach.

“Just you wait you little brat,” Korra muttered under her breath as she picked up the ball and used her airbending to start it spinning. She balanced the ball on one finger and kept it spinning as she looked down the beach towards Meelo. Spotting an opening she pushed hard with her other hand and the ball shot down the beach toward the opposite goal.

Meelo laughed out loud as he leapt up off the sand and somersaulted through the air to catch the ball between his feet. Appearing to hover in mid-air, he twisted his feet and spun the ball back towards Korra. It bounced once off the beach and then shot straight between her legs and through the goalposts again.

“YES!” Meelo crowed, dancing around at his end of the beach. “Meelo the man is unbeatable.”

“You might want to give up, Korra,” Kai said from his perch on a rock overlooking the beach where he was watching the contest.

It was a bright sunny afternoon on Air Temple Island and everyone was taking some time to enjoy themselves. Jinora was sitting next to Kai with her legs crossed beneath her as she read a thick tome of ancient lore. Ikki was dancing up and down the steps that lead up to the White Lotus guardhouse near the beach. Rohan and Pema were sitting under a tree on the grass playing a game with some large wood tiles and it even appeared that Tenzin was enjoying himself, the airbending master meditating on a brightly-coloured mat.

“Another try, Avatar?” Meelo asked jumping from side to side as he waited for her to spin the ball his way.

“I might take a rest,” she said.

“Hah,” Meelo called out, posing and flexing his arms. “No one can beat me.”

“My go,” Ikki said, using an air scooter to speed her way down to the beach to take Korra's place. She picked up the ball and set it spinning and rolled it up and down her arms and then spun it around her body. Glad to relinquish the field to the two siblings, Korra left the beach and walked over to join Kai and Jinora.

“Don't feel bad, Korra,” Kai said. “None of us have been able to beat Meelo yet.”

“I guess I still have some more to learn about airbending,” she said stretching to work the kinks out of her tired muscles. What should have been a simple game had tested her more than she would have thought possible.

“Don't let Dad hear you say that,” Jinora said, glancing back to where Tenzin was mediating. “He'll have you doing training every day from now until winter.”

Korra laughed at that and lay back against the warm rocks to soak up some sunlight. Behind her Jinora exchanged a questioning glance with Kai who frowned and then shrugged. Jinora raised her eyebrows and then she nodded towards Korra. When Kai shook his head and pointed back at her, Jinora sighed, closed the book, and shuffled a bit closer to Korra.

“So Korra,” she began. “Are you staying for dinner tonight, we are having Mum's famous mint noodle soup and then tofu curry with fresh vegetables.”

Korra shook her head. “No, I can't.”

“Dinner with Asami again?” Jinora asked as innocently as she could.

Korra raised her head off the rock and turned to frown at Jinora. The young airbending master had a neutral expression on her face, but Korra still watched her carefully as she said, “As it happens, yes I am having dinner with Asami.”

Jinora nodded and quickly turned her attention back to her book.

After Korra had returned to her sunbathing, Jinora looked back to Kai and nodded her head towards the nearby White Lotus guardhouse, which was unoccupied as the White Lotus on duty were down on the wharf preparing one of the boats.

Kai nodded and followed Jinora into the building. “See,” Jinora whispered to him. “That's two nights in a row now. They are definitely dating.”

“It's still not proof,” Kai said, crossing his arms and smiling at his girlfriend.

Jinora folded her arms as well and glared back at him. “What is it going to take to convince you.”

“Well, we need either a photo or we need see them together.”

“What do you mean together?”

A blush spread across Kai's face and he ran a hand through his hair. “Well I'm not going to sneak into Asami's bedroom or anything like that,” he said. “But... you know... holding hands or a kiss or something.”

“They aren't likely to do anything like that here,” Jinora said. “Not if they are trying to be sneaky.”

“Then we need to follow them.”

“What!” Jinora whispered furiously. “We can't do that?”

“Why not?”

“Well Dad would never let us go out into the city that late at night for starters.”

“Well, what if you ask for permission to go to a mover, but instead we could follow Korra until she meets with Asami and see whatever... um... we see.”

Jinora started giggling at the idea. “This is so stupid,” she chuckled. “Why don't we just ask them.”

“Then I win the bet,” Kai said.

Jinora stopped giggling and glared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Asking them is cheating,” Kai said. “You bet me that you could prove that Asami and Korra are dating and I only agreed if you could do it without asking them. So you have to prove it to me.”

Jinora sighed. “All right, I'll ask Mum if we can go to a mover.”

When Jinora returned a few minutes later, she found Kai crouched behind a bush near the guardhouse. “Quiet,” he whispered when she started to ask what he was doing. Kai then pointed towards the docks where Korra was walking towards the docks carrying her glider staff.

“She wasn't happy about me missing dinner, but she still said yes,” Jinora whispered to Kai as she joined him in hiding behind the bush. “But we have get back by nine at the latest or we'll have to answer to Dad.”

Down on the docks Korra was walking towards the boat the White Lotus had prepared, with Naga following closely behind her. As Korra and Naga walked up the gangplank and boarded the boat, Jinora looked out over Yue Bay towards the city. “How are we going to do this,” she asked.

Kai shaded his eyes as he looked west towards the setting sun and then he pointed towards the statue of Aang. “We'll fly there and watch her boat from the top of Aang's head and see where the White Lotus are taking her. Then we'll follow her through the city. If we keep to the rooftops she shouldn't see us and if she is taking Naga then she is easy enough to follow.”

Jinora nodded. “Okay, but if we have to miss dinner you are paying for something from a street vendor.”

Kai frowned and checked his pocket to see how many yuans he had on him. He grimaced when he examined his meagre stash of money, but he still nodded in agreement. “All right, I'll buy dinner,” he said.

Jinora smiled sweetly at him. “Then let's do this.”

The two airbenders unclipped their wing-suits and jumped into the air, using their airbending to glide out across the water towards Aang Memorial Island. Below them, the White Lotus boat was just leaving the wharf and it headed towards the western edge of the city, with Korra and Naga standing at the stern. The polar bear dog's tongue was hanging out as she enjoyed the afternoon sea breeze blowing in off the ocean, bringing with it the smells of salt water and the open ocean.

 

* * *

 

Asami placed the last saucepan on the stove and carefully set the temperature to the correct level as indicated in the recipe she was using as a guide. She wiped her hand across her brow, and then nodded in satisfaction as the saucepan bubbled away and a wonderful smell began to permeate the air of the kitchen. She glanced at the recipe again and saw that it said that she had ten minutes before she would have to remove the saucepan from the stove, so she left the kitchen and went back to her study.

Her study was actually the second bedroom in the old apartment, but until she had something more permanent built she had put her drafting table in here as well a small workbench. Her spare electrified glove was sitting on the workbench surrounded by some scattered tools as she had used to adjust the strength of the charge a couple of days earlier. She left it there for now and sat down at the drafting table to continue working on the blueprint. The design was nearly complete and if she was able to finish it tonight, then tomorrow she'd be able to get her team to start putting a prototype together.

Time slipped by, and Asami was suddenly aware of a burning smell coming from the kitchen. “No!” she cried out as she leapt to her feet and rushed back into the kitchen. Sure enough, black smoke was pouring out of the saucepan. She whipped it off the stove top and carried it over to the sink to inspect the burning dish. Sure enough, the main dish in her carefully planned dinner was now a thick black mass at the bottom of the saucepan. She turned on the tap and drowned the saucepan to stop it smoking then opened the window to try to carry the smoke out of the building.

There was a strong sea breeze blowing over the city which would clear away the smell of smoke, but there was nothing she could do for her meal, it was completely ruined. Asami sat down at the kitchen table and glared at the saucepan for a few minutes. Korra was arriving in just over half an hour and expecting something to eat and her perfectly planned water tribe meal was now a thick black sludge. She still had the noodles and the wine, but that was a pretty poor fare to offer her girlfriend, especially when she was trying to impress Korra with her cooking skills.

Sudden inspiration struck her and Asami ran into her bedroom to snatch up her purse and then headed downstairs, taking the stairs two at time. Dragging open the door to her garage, Asami leapt into the driver's seat of her satomobile and pushed her foot down on the accelerator, speeding out of the building and off towards the main road back into the city.

 

* * *

 

The police airship slowly made its way out over the bay, multiple searchlights probing the water below in a standard search pattern. Night was just falling over the city and although the day had been clear, dark clouds coming in from the west were already making it difficult to see anything on the surface of the water. “This is probably a hoax,” the sergeant muttered as he made his way up to the control room.

“What are we looking for, Sarge?” the pilot asked, glancing back over his shoulder.

“The captain of a freighter coming into the harbour earlier reported an abandoned boat floating way out here in Yue Bay and because it's apparently floating right in the middle of the shipping lane, Chief Beifong wants us to find it before there is an accident.”

“In the middle of the bay at night?”

“That's what she said,” the sergeant replied. “So we are probably in for a long night.” He leaned up against the wall and inclined his head towards the rear of the airship. “Who's the rookie?”

“Some kid called Hong Li, from Zaofu I think.”

“Not one of Kuvira's lot is he?”

The pilot shook his head. “I don't think so. The rumour I heard was that he left the city long before she even took over.”

“Well maybe we need to test him out, you know, see if he's up to the job.”

The pilot nodded and winked. “Got it, Sarge.”

The airship reached the eastern edge of the harbour and turned around in a wide arc, tracking back towards the centre of Yue bay again. The searchlights continued to probe the ocean below, seeking a tiny boat in a very large harbour.

 

* * *

 

The dark-blue satomobile screeched to a halt outside Narook's Seaweed Noodlery, nearly hitting another vehicle parked out front. Asami leapt out and pushed her way past another customer who was just leaving and rushed over to the counter.

She grabbed the apron of the waiter who was taking orders and nearly dragged him over the counter. “I need to speak to Narook at once,” she said. “It's an emergency.”

“All right,” the man said. Asami released him and he brushed down his apron, trying to muster some dignity in front of the rest of the customers who had stopped to stare at the commotion. Turning towards the kitchen, the waiter bellowed, “Narook!”

The door to the kitchen burst open and a huge, overweight man dressed in a stained white singlet and blue pants strode out. “What's the problem out here,” he growled. The waiter pointed across the counter and he glared at Asami for a second or two before his expression changed when he realised who was facing him across the counter and a broad smile spread across his face. “Miss Sato,” he said, “How can I help you?”

“I need two meals urgently,” she said.

“Certainly,” he replied, barely able to hide his annoyance at being summoned for such a trivial request. “I'm sure we can find you a seat somewhere or maybe you'd like to freshen up while you wait.”

Asami shook her head. “No, not here. I need meals I can take back home.”

Narook scratched his vest and frowned. “You mean on a plate?”

Asmai shook her head again. “No, that wouldn't work. Don't you have a container or something you could pack the food into. I've... well I've burnt the meal I was cooking for an important guest and I don't have anything to serve. So I need something urgently to replace the main dish or my dinner will be completely ruined.”

Narook looked thoughtful and then he nodded slowly. “I might have some containers that would do the job. Now what do you actually want to eat?”

“I promised Kor... I mean my guest, that I'd make an authentic southern water tribe meal. Can you make something suitable?”

“Sure,” Narook said. “Does my famous seaweed noddles and spiced sea crab with smoked strips of southern sea bass sound good?”

“Perfect,” Asami said. “But I need it as quickly as possible, my guest is arriving soon.”

“Well...”

“I'll pay for the containers and double for the meal,” Asami said. “Just make it quick.”

“Ten minutes then,” Narook replied. “Wait right here.”

Nine minutes later, he returned with four carefully packed round straw baskets that were wafting delicious smelling steam into the air. “There you go, Miss Sato,” he said, handing them to Asami.

After Asami had handed over the money for the meal and hurried back to her satomobile, Narook rubbed the stubble on his chin. He looked over at the waiter. “Do you still have that cousin who sells those cheap straw boxes down in the market? Like the ones we use for steaming seafood.”

“Yeah,” the waiter replied. “They are no use to us though, they'd fall apart after a few uses. We want the...”

“No, they are perfect,” Narook said. “And you still have that motorbike right?”

“Yeah I do,” the waiter said. “What are you thinking, boss?”

Narook just smiled to himself and walked back into the kitchen whistling a happy tune.

 

* * *

 

“I've got something, Sarge,” one of the officers called out from the rear of the airship.

The sergeant peeled himself away the wall of the control cabin and slowly made his way back towards the rear of the airship. As he passed the officer the pilot had identified as Hong Li, he tapped him on the shoulder. “You are with me, Rookie,” he said, inclining his head towards the back of the airship.

The young officer nodded and followed the sergeant towards the officer who had called out earlier. All three peered down at the dark sea far below. Sure enough, a luxury launch was rocking gently in the water below. “This looks like it,” the sergeant said. “And a lot quicker than I thought to. Good work.” He turned to the young officer. “Okay, Rookie, you are going down first, I'll follow you.”

The young officer nodded and moved to centre of the airship where he used his metalbending to push open the door leading outside. A railing ran along the outside of the airship just above the door and he reached up and clipped his metal cable to it then leapt into the darkness, falling away towards the ocean below.

The sergeant and the officer who had operated the searchlight ran to the door and peered out, just in time to see the rookie waving at them from the deck of the boat. “You next, Sarge,” the other officer chuckled.

The sergeant shivered, not looking forward to this jump. Out over the water and away from the buildings the metalbenders usually used to steady their descent, he was just as likely to end up in the water as on the boat, a fate that he had imagined would have befallen the rookie. Still, he couldn't let his officers see him baulk at something a young rookie had just done so easily so he clipped his cable to the railing and leapt off the airship.

As soon as he jumped he knew he was going to miss the boat and he clenched his teeth as he fell towards the icy water knowing he was in for a soaking. He could already imagine the stories that would be going around the bar later that night if he was shown up by a rookie. By tomorrow half the station would know the story.

However, instead of hitting the cold water, a cable wrapped around his armour and he felt himself being dragged towards the boat, and soon after he landed on the deck of the boat. “Thanks,” he said to the young metalbender who nodded to him and then bent over a man slumped unconscious over the boat's controls.

“What have we got,” the sergeant asked, joining the rookie.

“Two men. They are alive, but unconscious. I've tried, but I can't wake them. There is no evidence of injury or any reason as to why they could be unconscious. The boat doesn't look damaged and it's fuel gage is still close to full so they didn't run out of fuel and strand themselves here.”

“Okay so we have a mystery on our hands,” the sergeant said. “Go back up to the ship get them to call this in. We'll take this boat over to the water division in the western precinct, so make sure there is an ambulance waiting. Then we'll hand it over to the detectives and head back to base and hit up the bar for a drink.”

The rookie nodded and shot back into the air, the metal cable carrying him back up to the airship. The sergeant unclipped a heavy-duty flashlight from his belt and shone the light in the faces of the two unconscious men. He didn't recognise either man, so he swung the light around and noticed something painted on the boat's seats. Looking closer he saw it was a sailing ship with a dark-blue hull and two light-blue sails. “Oh no,” he said as he remembered back to events a few years ago. “Anyone but him.”

 

* * *

 

Korra had some trouble finding the route to Asami's apartment and had to backtrack several times before she finally found the street where Asami had bought her the previous evening. The metal door leading into Asami's building was open so she climbed down off Naga and guided the polar bear dog inside the garage.

No one was around when they entered, but she saw Asami's satomobile parked in the garage so Korra assumed her girlfriend was home. As Korra brushed passed the bonnet of the satomobile, she jumped back with a yelp as she realised the engine was still hot. Soon after, she heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs and looked up to see an out-of-breath Asami coming down the stairs.

“You made it,” Asami said with a smile. Then she looked over at the massive shape of the polar bear dog sitting on the floor of her garage. “And you bought Naga.”

“Yeah, she needed some exercise, Meelo keeps feeding her so I think she's getting fat.”

Asami brushed her fingers through the fur on the polar bear dog's wide head. “Is that true, Naga, are you getting fat?” Naga leaned forward and sniffed Asami's fingers and then she started licking the engineer's hand.

“Naga approves,” Korra said smiling at the two.

“Well that's nice,” Asami said. “But how about Naga's mistress, does she approve of me as well?”

Korra looked thoughtful and then said. “I guess that depends what you've made me for dinner,” she said with a cheeky grin.

Asami took hold of Korra's hand and pulled her close to plant a gentle kiss on her girlfriend's lips. “Dinner is a surprise,” she said. “You'll just have to wait and see what it is.”

“And desert?”

They kissed again, deeper and more passionately than before. When they finally broke apart, both women stared into each other's eyes for several long moments before they were rudely interrupted by a loud whine from Naga.

“You've already eaten,” Korra scolded.

“I'll just shut everything up down here and we'll go upstairs,” Asami said, extracting herself from Korra's embrace and walking across to the garage door to pull it closed. “Dinner is getting cold.”

Walking over to the staircase Korra paused with one foot on the bottom step as she examined the narrow staircase and then looked over at the big polar bear dog. Naga cocked her head to one side and looked back at Korra as if to ask what was wrong.

 

* * *

 

Perched on the rooftop of the apartment across the road, Kai and Jinora groaned as the metal door slid shut and blocked their already very limited view of the garage below Asami's apartment. “What now,” Jinora asked. “All I could see was Naga's tail.”

“I don't know,” Kai admitted. “I thought they would be going out to dinner.”

“So this turned out to be a really silly idea didn't it,” Jinora said. “They must have decided to stay here and have dinner and we can't see anything from up here.”

“Doesn't look like it. So what now?”

“We could go back to Air Temple Island. We should still be in time for dinner if we hurry.”

Kai considered this. “Then your mum is going to know we didn't really go to a mover.”

“So we'll have to get something to eat in the city then?”

Kai nodded. “Sure, the Golden Tower isn't far from there. We can buy something to eat there for sure and then maybe sit at the top of the tower and... um... look at the lights.”

Jinora smiled and took her boyfriend's hand and together they jumped off the top of the building and glided away down the street.

 

* * *

 


	7. Chapter 7

 

* * *

 

Korra sat on a red cushion at the low, wooden table in the centre of the room. Like almost all the furniture in the room, the table looked out-of-place, a valuable antique sitting on a bare stone floor in a room where the paint on the walls and ceiling was flaking with age. The dust and plaster Naga had shaken off when she had entered the room didn't help the decor either and only served to remind Korra of the damage the polar bear dog had done on the way up the stairs.

The door to the kitchen swung open and Asami came through backwards, carrying a tray loaded with bowls of noodles, a covered dish that smelled wonderful even from where Korra was sitting, and a bottle of wine and two tall crystal glasses.

“I'm sorry about the wall,” Korra said.

“It's all right,” Asami assured her as she placed the bowls of noodles on the table and used a ladle to fill Korra's plate with a generous helping of a tasty looking crab and smoked fish dish which reminded the water tribe woman of dishes her mother had made. The mouth-watering smell wafting off the food was tantalising and Korra could barely wait to pick up her chopsticks and devour the meal.

“I thought Naga would fit,” Korra said. The polar bear dog looked up when she heard her name mentioned and stared at the table with her tongue hanging out until it became obvious that no food would be coming her way and she lay back down disappointed.

“It's okay, Korra,” Asami said. “I planned to widen the staircase as part of the renovations anyway. I'll just get the builders to start on it a little earlier. Now eat up before it gets cold.”

Korra didn't need another invitation and she dug into the meal, savouring the spicy taste of the crab and the smoked fish. “This is amazing,” Korra said to Asami after she had cleared away half her plate. “I can't believe you cooked this. It is just like what I used to have back home.”

Asami looked embarrassed and she couldn't quite meet Korra's gaze. “Well,” she said. “I didn't actually make this. I had to buy it from Narook's. I did try to cook,” Asami she added quickly before Korra could comment. “But I got distracted by my work and my attempt was a bit burned.”

Korra nearly snorted out a mouthful of food as she cracked up laughing. “I'm sorry,” she said, when she saw Asami looking a little miffed by her reaction. “I just have this mental image of you working on your satomobile while your kitchen is burning down.”

“It wasn't that bad,” Asami said. “And I was working on a blueprint for a new project, not my satomobile.”

“What are you working on?” Korra asked, swirling her chopsticks around on her plate to pick up another mouthful of food.

“A new engine,” Asami replied. “It's not important, just a project I want my team to start working on tomorrow if they can.”

“But important enough to forget about your cooking.”

“No... well yes I guess it was. I thought I had plenty of time and then smoke started pouring out of my kitchen. I guess the recipe was wrong.” When Korra started laughing again, Asami glared at her. “You think you can do better?” she said.

“My meals usually don't end up burned.”

“Then you'll have to prove it,” Asami said. “Next time we eat together you have to cook.”

“Okay,” Korra said with a cocky smile. “You're on. Come to dinner tomorrow night at Air Temple Island and I'll cook for everyone. Then if I fail it won't just be you to see it.”

“And no help from Pema.”

“All right,” Korra agreed. “I'll do it without any help at all from Pema.”

“This should be interesting.”

“You don't think I can do it?” Korra asked.

“I didn't say that,” Asami said. “I just said it would be interesting.”

“Interesting good or interesting bad?”

“How about some wine,” Asami suggested, changing the subject. When Korra nodded, she poured two glasses and sat back on her cushion sipping the rich dark-red liquid. “So aside from me burning your dinner and Naga covering both of us with plaster, how was your day?”

“The usual,” Korra said. “President Raiko is still trying to make me his personal bodyguard, I nearly fell asleep during Wu's incredibly long and boring speech, one of the badger-moles escaped and tried to dig up the street and I had an awkward conversation with Mako.”

“What about?”

“He was wondering why we didn't take him and Bolin with us to the spirit world.”

“Oh I see. What did you say?”

“I changed the subject as quickly as I could,” Korra replied. “Then Wu called him away before things got really awkward. I also got to talk to Lin, apparently a lot of Kuvira's followers have disappeared and she is worried they might be here in Republic City trying to cause trouble.”

“So Raiko might be right to keep you around here,” Asami said. “And of course, there are some other benefits to you staying here.”

“There are indeed,” Korra said. “The food is pretty good. I've never had much of a taste for Earth Kingdom food.”

After ducking the napkin thrown by Asami, which Naga snapped out of the air and then spat out and began to bat with her paw when she didn't like the taste, Korra asked, “So how was your day.”

“Busy,” Asami said. “I met with Varrick and Zhu Li today. They apparently spent their entire honeymoon plotting to steal away part of my company from me again.”

“Do you want me to talk to him? I'm pretty sure I can convince him to leave your company alone.”

Asami shook her head. “No it's all right, Korra, it's just everyday business. If it wasn't Varrick it would be someone else. Anyway, I've already dealt with the problem.”

“What did you do?”

“I sold him the part of the company he was after.”

“So how is that dealing with him?” Korra asked.

“It's complicated,” Asami explained. “We were losing money on that division anyway, so selling it to Varrick made good sense as it shored up our cash reserves and got rid of a loss making part of the business. Perhaps we didn't get as good a price as we might have been able to elsewhere, but I have Varrick where I want him now.”

“So that's good?” Korra asked.

“Yes it is,” Asami said. “However, I do still have to see that little weasel-rat again in a couple of days time to sign the deal. I also agreed to have dinner with him and Zhu Li afterwards.”

“Do you want me to come along?” Korra asked.

“Not if you don't want to,” Asami said.

“Well, I can make sure he doesn't get up to anything sneaky while I'm there if you like.”

“I would enjoy having some company,” Asami said. “I don't mind Zhu Li, but Varrick makes me so angry sometimes.”

“Then it's a date,” Korra said. “Although that does mean we will have had dinner together nearly every day this week.”

Asami looked concerned. “Are we going to fast for you?”

Korra shook her head and reached across the table to squeeze Asami's hand. “No, of course not. I want to spend more time with you, not less. But people are going to start to notice we are spending all our time together, assuming they haven't already. Jinora was asking me about my dinner plans again this afternoon.”

“Let them notice,” Asami said. “In fact, I'd be surprised if most our friends haven't already worked it out. My assistant already knew.”

“Really, how did she work out we were dating, I thought we had kept things pretty quiet.”

“That's what I said to Seiko as well. She wouldn't tell me, just said that it was obvious to anyone who knew me.”

“I guess you are right,” Korra said. “Our friends will probably work it out fairly easily.”

As they had now both finished off their meals, Asami began to gather up the empty plates and bowls and put them on the tray.

“Do you want some help with the dishes?” Korra asked.

“They won't take long,” Asami said.

Asami picked up the tray and walked through into the kitchen with Korra following. In the kitchen she walked over to a large square metal box that sat next to the sink and after opening a lid on the top began to put the dishes into the box.

“What is this,” Korra asked, looking in wonder inside the box where metal racks held all the dishes.

“This is a new Future Industries prototype,” Asami said. “The electric dishwasher.”

“Won't that break all the dishes?”

“No it won't,” Asami said. “But everyone thinks that and this is why we haven't been able to make many major sales yet. It works perfectly but we just can't get people to accept it yet because no one trusts a machine to clean their dishes. Just watch this.”

After Asami had finished loading the dishes into the machines, she poured in some liquid out of a glass bottle and then closed the lid and turned a metal knob on the top of the machine. “Now we just walk away and all the dishes will be cleaned. I can even let them dry inside the machine and take them out tomorrow if I want.”

“And you can't sell it?” Korra said, shaking her head in amazement.

“Not so far,” Asami said.

“Maybe you need to put it in a mover like how Varrick tried to sway opinion during the water tribe civil war.”

“That's actually a really good idea, Korra,” Asami said. “I'll get my marketing team to look into that. Movers are popular enough that if we can show someone with one of our dishwashers then people might show an interest in buying one.”

“So I did good?” Korra asked.

“You did,” Asami said, smiling. “We make a good team. Varrick and Zhu Li have nothing on us.”

“No they don't,” Korra agreed.

Leaving the kitchen, Korra and Asami moved back to the dining room, which was also the lounge room until Asami was able to expand her home into one of the other apartments. Asami rescued the wine bottle and poured two glasses of wine then curled up on the leather couch with her feet tucked under her. Korra sat down next to her and sipped the wine in her glass. Naga, seeing no more chances that food would be arriving, closed her eyes and began to drift off to sleep.

There was a radio sitting on a small side table next to the couch and Asami leaned over to flick it on, but when it only blared out a hissing sound, she frowned. “I'll be right back,” she said to Korra, as she put her glass down on the table and hurried into another room, soon returning with a small selection of tools, most of which she placed down on the table next to her glass of wine.

Korra laughed as Asami began to open up the back of the radio with a screwdriver and leaned over to kiss her girlfriend on the back of her shoulder. “We don't need the radio,” she whispered in Asami's ear.

“I thought maybe some music?”

Reaching over to place her still half-full glass down on the table next to Asami's, Korra slid closer on the couch with one hand sliding around behind Asami and the other reaching out to turn her girlfriend's face towards her. As Asami abandoned her work on the radio and let her screwdriver fall from her fingers and roll off across the floor, Korra leaned in to kiss her on the lips.

Breathing a little heavier, Asami pushed her girlfriend back against the couch and while Korra's fingers fumbled with the buttons of her jacket, she let her hands slip underneath Korra's blue top and began to push it upwards, marvelling as she felt the toned stomach muscles tighten beneath her touch. Korra abandoned her efforts to remove Asami's jacket and held her arms up so Asami could pull her top up and over her head. The offending article of clothing was removed and tossed over Asami shoulder and she began to trail kisses along Korra's naked shoulder.

“So,” Korra managed to say. “Bedroom?”

“Bedroom,” Asami replied, still kissing Korra.

Korra swept Asami off her feet and easily carrying the other woman in her arms, headed for the bedroom. Left behind in the lounge room, Naga reached up and scratched her ears with her paw, dislodging Korra's top which had landed on her head. Then she lay down and put her head between her paws and went back to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Harmony Tower, more commonly known as the Golden Tower due to the colour it appeared at night when brightly lit by dozens of spotlights, was one of city monuments attacked during harmonic convergence, when thick spirit vines had curled around the tall metal lattice structure. Three years later, the vines still remained, but as in other parts of the city the people had adapted. Street vendors used the vines for shelter in bad weather and strings of brightly coloured lanterns hung from the larger vines.

Sitting on the edge of the metal platform at the very top of the tower, Kai put his arm around Jinora and smiled as his girlfriend used her airbending to play a game with the flying spirits gathered around at the top of the tower.

“We'll have to leave soon,” he said.

“I know,” Jinora said with a sigh. “We don't want to be late, Dad will be watching the clock.”

“We didn't learn anything new about Korra and Asami tonight, but I'm glad we came.”

“It was fun,” Jinora agreed, turning away from the playful spirits to plant a soft kiss on Kai's lips. “Come on, I'll race you back,” she said with a teasing sparkle in her eye.

No sooner had Kai agreed than Jinora was off and gliding out across the harbour. Kai quickly followed and able to catch the young airbending master before she had reach the bay. Forgetting about their race they clasped hands and flew together towards Air Temple Island.

 

* * *

 

“I told you we could trust them,” Pema said as Kai and Jinora landed in the courtyard below the main tower. Neither of the teenagers appeared to spot Jinora's parents watching from their bedroom window high above.

Tenzin watched until the young airbenders had parted and both were walking off towards their respective rooms on opposites sides of the island. Flicking the curtains shut, he crossed the room to join his wife. “They are growing up so fast,” he complained.

“Children do that,” Pema said. “It won't be long until we have to look forward to Rohan's first love as well.”

“I only hope I can guide them properly,” Tenzin said.

“You are a great father,” Pema assured him. “Look how well Jinora has turned out, an airbending master at age fourteen, and you did a wonderful job guiding Korra in her role as avatar as well.”

“I'm not so sure about that,” Tenzin said. “Korra has only been back in the city for a couple of days and she has spent nearly every night since out with Asami going to bars or nightclubs or whatever it is young women do these days. She was nearly falling asleep during Wu's speech today.”

“I don't think Korra and Asami have been going out to bars,” Pema said.

“What? But she was out with Asami all night, what else could they have been doing?”

Pema smiled. “I think they have been staying in.”

Tenzin's brow furrowed as he considered this and then understanding dawned. “Oh,” he said. “Well that does explain a lot.”

Pema nodded and then leaned forward to kiss her husband. “Perhaps we should stay in as well tonight,” she suggested.

Tenzin responded with an answering kiss and then he reached up to start unbuttoning his robe.

 

* * *

 

One of the casualties of Kuvira's recent invasion of Republic City was police headquarters and while a replacement building was already being built by a Future Industries construction team on the site of an abandoned factory near the central train station, but it would be months until it was complete. In the meantime the officers based at the old headquarters building were temporarily reassigned to the city's other two main police stations, which were the western precinct located on the waterfront and used a base for the water police and the eastern precinct located in the industrial sector and home to the police airship fleet.

The western precinct station was a ten-story office building attached to two large warehouses, the first was used to store and maintain the small fleet of water craft, and the second warehouse stored motorcycles and other vehicles used by the police force. The second warehouse had since been converted to an office used by half the city's detectives and beat cops while the rest had relocated over to the eastern precinct. Chief Lin Beifong had also taken over an office here in the western precinct, temporarily evicting the station's captain, who had in turn evicted one of his lieutenants and so on until the most junior officer in the station found herself relegated out to the warehouse.

Pulling up at the wharf, the two officers who had recovered Varrick's launch could see a small group waiting for them to arrive. An older man in civilian dress was likely the station's on-duty doctor, while another four grouped together looked like the crews of the ambulances the airship had called. The last person waiting on the wharf was a tall woman dressed in a neat dark-grey suit.

“I should have known it was you, Sergeant Tang,” the woman said as the two men stepped off the boat and made room for the medical team to climb aboard and start examining the patients. “What sort of mess have you found for me this time?”

“Blame the chief for this one, Detective Dakola, she sent us out to find this boat.”

“So what are we dealing with?”

“The boat belongs to Varrick, or at least it has his company's emblem on all the seats, and you know how that bastard likes to brand everything. The two people on board were both unconscious when we found them. There is no sign of violence or a struggle and I can't see any visible damage to the boat. So it's a bit of a mystery.”

All three took a step back as the medical team carried the two unconscious men off the boat. “Do either of you have a light?” the detective asked.

“Here,” the sergeant said, handing her his flashlight.

She switched on the light and shone it around the boat and examined the main deck carefully for several minutes while the two officers stood back and watched. After finishing her examination, the detective switched off the flashlight and handed it back. “I want this boat sealed off until my team can look at it properly tomorrow. However, there is something metal under the left rear seat, I'll need to see what that is now, but be careful it looks sharp.”

“I can get that,” Hong Li said. The young officer squatted down at the edge of the wharf and pulled out his own flashlight and began to shine the light beneath the seat the detective had identified, looking for the object she had seen.

“Bring it to me once you have it,” Dakola said as she walked away. “Sergeant Tang come with me.”

The sergeant followed her over to where the doctor was treating the two victims. She examined the faces of the two men, her grey eyes narrowing when she got to the second man. “Do you know him?” she asked.

The sergeant shook his head. “No, neither is familiar to me.”

“This is Big Yao, he's a waterbender who used to play on the pro-bending circuit about five years back until he was expelled from the sport when we discovered he was throwing matches. Turned out that he had a deal going on with one of the triads and they were making a fortune gambling on his matches. He served four years in prison and he was just released recently. Last I heard was that he started working as a bodyguard for hire.”

“So if he's a bodyguard who is he guarding?” Tang asked. “That other guy just looks like the crew.”

“Yes, I agree.” She turned to the doctor who was looking at something on Big Yao's shoulder. “What's the verdict?”

The doctor looked up from the patient. “I'm not certain,” he said. “They are alive and breathing normally, but they are still unconscious and I haven't been able to wake them. There are some puncture marks on their bodies so I suspect we are looking at an injected poison of some sort and not a disease or an animal attack. They aren't paralysed so that rules out shirshu saliva, which is the most common fast acting poison, so this is likely something else.”

“But you have no idea what?”

“No,” the doctor said. “There are any number of exotic animal and plant poisons from across the world that could have this effect and each has very different treatments. The antidotes for some can cause complications with others so I really need to know exactly what it is before I can treat it properly.”

“Perhaps this can help,” Hong Li said as he arrived with one hand outstretched. Floating in the air above his hand was a metal dart.

“No need to get fancy, kid,” Tang muttered under his breath.

The detective plucked the dart out of the air, careful to not to touch the tip. There was a brown substance smeared across the tip and she sniffed at it before shrugging and passing the dart to the doctor.

The doctor looked at it carefully, also sniffing at the substance and then he walked over to the wharf where it was darker before finally returning to his patients. “I know it,” he said. “It's a fast acting plant poison made from the ghost lotus, a luminescent flower common to swamps in the southern reaches of the United Republic.”

“Can you counter it?”

The doctor nodded. “I have an antidote in my stock.”

“Then get it, I want to hear what these two have to say.”

The doctor quickly retrieved the antidote and returned with a phial of clear liquid and a needle. After receiving the required dosage of the antidote the men quickly recovered and were soon able to sit up and sip water. “You can ask a few questions,” the doctor said, but I still want them taken to the hospital in case there are side effects.

Before Dakola could ask anything the man she had identified as Big Yao spoke up. “Where is the boss?” he asked, looking around the room. “The boss and his wife were on the boat with us.”

“Are you talking about Mr Varrick?” Dakola asked.

“Yeah, Varrick and Zhu Li. We were coming back from a meeting at Future Industries with them when this happened.”

“What exactly did happen?”

“Don't remember much. There was another boat behind us, a speedboat, really fast too. It came up behind us and I think there was a woman standing up at the back. Then it pulled right alongside and that's about all I remember.”

The two officers and the detective exchanged glances. “Do you mean to say that someone has kidnapped Mr Varrick and his wife?” Dakola asked.

“Well they ain't here,” the bodyguard said.

“And what about you,” the detective said, looking over at the other man. “What do you remember?”

“About the same,” the driver replied. “I was at the controls and then another boat came up beside us and then I blacked out. I didn't see the woman Yao mentioned, but I wasn't looking at the boat.”

“This woman, do you remember anything about her?”

Big Yao shook his head. “Not much, was wearing green I think, oh yeah except for a floppy black hat and I think her boots might have been black too. There were others in the speedboat but I didn't see them.”

“Did you see how many there were?”

“Two maybe. I didn't get a good look at them.”

“Okay, was Mr Varrick carrying any valuables?”

“Not that I know of, he had just gone for a meeting. I think Zhu Li had a folder with her with some business papers, but I don't know what was in them.”

The detective pulled out her notebook and made a few notes before she continued the questions. “Do you know what the meeting at Future Industries was about?”

“I'm paid not to pay attention to their business, and anyway I stayed with the boat when they went inside to talk to the Sato girl.”

Dakola frowned. “All right, do you know what time it happened?”

“It was just about two I think. We were heading back to the yacht for a late lunch.”

“And it is,” the detective looked at her watch. “Nearly ten now, so they have been gone for eight hours.”

“That is probably enough questions,” the doctor said, gesturing to the ambulance crews. “They are recovering from a nasty poison so we don't want to stress them.”

“I'll have one of my colleagues come down to see you two tomorrow,” Dakola said as the two men were carted away towards the ambulances that waited outside the warehouse. She turned back to her notebook to jot down some more notes.

“So what now,” Sergeant Tang asked as the ambulances pulled away.

“We are going to have to tell the chief,” she said. “One of the richest men in the world was kidnapped in the heart of the city and who knows what kind of secrets he's carrying around in his head.”

Tang nodded and then he slapped Hong Li on the back. “Guess what kid.”

“I get to go and wake Chief Beifong?”

Dakola laughed. “This rookie's a fast learner, Tang. You want to watch out or I might steal him away for my team.”

 

* * *

 

The low murmur of voices was the first thing Varrick heard as consciousness returned, followed by the chink of metal striking metal and then a low, familiar sounding hum. He tried to open his eyes, but as soon as he did so spots danced across his vision, his head spun, and he felt sick. Keeping his eyes closed for now he tried to take stock of his situation. He recalled the meeting with Asami, then boarding the launch and heading back to the yacht. Then it became hazy, he recalled being attacked, but then nothing more until he woke here and the weight pulling down on his wrists suggested he was in shackles which wasn't good. He was sitting on a cold stone floor with his back against something warmer, perhaps metal instead of stone. There was the stench of sewerage in the air and something else, the familiar smell of oil and grease, which meant machinery.

Varrick tried opening his eyes again, and this time the nausea was less, but his vision was still blurry and his mouth felt dry as if he hadn't drunk anything for a week. Across from him was a small cluster of human sized blurs and squinting he could just make out their faces. One was a woman dressed in green overalls. Her clothing suggested a worker, but her haircut suggested a soldier, likely one of Kuvira's former followers. She was speaking to a man and a woman dressed in more outlandish clothing and weapons. Varrick immediately labelled them mercenaries or bandits, he had employed enough over the years to know their type. The first woman was counting out coins from a large chest and pushing them across a table to the female mercenary, which supported his theory.

He twisted his head a little to one side and tried to see past the three. That was when he spotted the hulking shapes of three mecha suits at the far end of the room. One appeared to be inactive with parts strewn across a nearby table, but the other two were complete. The cockpit of one of the mecha suits was open and there was a man strapped in the seat working the controls. It was from this machine the humming sound was coming. They were his, well the mecha suits he had designed for the Earth Empire anyway. He had thought all the surviving mecha suits had been accounted for at the end of the war, but obviously a few had made it into the hands of this crew, which was troubling.

Varrick turned his attention to his own situation, checking his bonds. Sure enough, metal shackles encased his wrists and the chain attached to the shackles was also wrapped around a nearby pipe that ran around the edge of the room before ending near a tunnel on the far wall. A thick torrent of foul-smelling sludge pouring from the pipe into the tunnel beyond the room explained the stench of sewerage that was constantly assaulting his nostrils. Looking behind him he could see a ladder leading upwards, perhaps to the surface.

His vision was clearing now and he could make out more details. He was also shocked to discover Zhu Li was also imprisoned with him, his wife lying on the stone floor not far from him, also shackled and chained to the sewer pipe. Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be unconscious, but Varrick could see her chest rising and falling so thankfully she was still breathing. He felt weak and moving bought on more dizziness, but he had to find out if she was okay, so he shuffled closer to Zhu Li.

The sound of his chains sliding over the stone alerted his captors and he heard a man call out, “He's awake.”

“About time,” another man said and Varrick looked up to see a tall man, also dressed in green overalls, striding across the room towards him. The man had the short haircut that had been common among Kurvia's most loyal followers and his face twisted in anger as he reached down and grabbed Varrick's hair. He dragged Varrick up to a sitting position, pulling his head back so he could glare into the inventor's eyes. “How are you feeling, traitor?” the man snarled at him.

“I could use a drink,” Varrick said.

“You'll get nothing from us, traitor,” the man said, slapping his hand hard across Varrick's face.

“Enough!” the woman said. “There will be plenty of time for that when we get him back to our base.”

The man spat at Varrick, the spittle hitting the inventor's cheek, but he still followed his orders and released Varrick. The solder walked over to the table near the dismantled mecha suit and started angrily poking at a burnt out mechanical device that looked to Varrick like the main control column from the mecha suit.

“Are we done now?” the female mercenary asked the woman who it appeared was commanding this group.

“Yes,” the woman said. “We know where to find you if we need you again.”

The two mercenaries turned and walked away, the man lugging a heavy green bag with him, while the woman tipped the pile of gold coins she had just received into a leather bag which she then tied to her belt. Both then walked past Varrick and began to climb up the ladder, which supported his theory the ladder lead up to the surface.

A grinding sound from the other side of the room dragged his attention in that direction and he saw the occupied mecha suit rise up from the floor and walk towards the sewer tunnel, the outer door on the suit slowly closing as it moved away down the tunnel. The second complete mecha suit remained empty, but another man was busy working on it, so it wouldn't be long before that one was moving as well if it still worked.

Varrick found his vision had now cleared, so he took the time to scan the room properly. In addition to the man who had hit him and the woman in charge, there were two other men in the room. One working on the second complete mecha suit and another sitting near a device, possibly a radio, which was sitting on a crate. All four wore green overalls like a uniform and the men all had the short haircuts of Kuvira loyalists.

He glanced over at Zhu Li again and his heart leapt when he saw that his wife's eyes were now open. He raised his shackled hands and pressed a finger to his lips to warn her about speaking. She nodded and then she also dragged her hands upwards, pulling two hairpins free from her hair. Then she winked at him.

 

* * *

 


	8. Chapter 8

 

* * *

 

The door to the apartment was flung open and a grouchy looking Lin glared out at the young officer standing in the hallway, his hand paused in the middle of knocking. “What do you want?” she demanded.

Hong Li took a step back. Police Chief Lin Beifong in full armour was an imposing sight on any day, but even more so when she was glaring at him from the doorway of her apartment after he had just woken her up. The young officer swallowed nervously, before squaring his shoulders and snapping off a smart salute. “Chief Beifong,” he began. “We have an emergency that requires your immediate attention. Mr Varrick from Varrick Global Industries has been kidnapped by persons unknown and is now missing.”

“Are you sure it's Varrick?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yes Chief, we have questioned his bodyguard and learned he was kidnapped just over eight hours ago.”

Lin pulled the door of her apartment closed and strode off down the corridor towards the lifts with Hong Li hurrying to keep up with her. “Who is we?” Lin asked while they waited for the lift to arrive on her floor.

“Sergeant Tang, Detective Dakola, and... um I don't know the doctor's name yet.”

“Why was a doctor involved?”

“The two men on Mr Varrick's boat were poisoned with a rare toxin and the doctor identified the poison and cured them.”

“Did this doctor say what the poison was?”

“I believe he said it was Ghost Lotus, Chief,” Hong Li replied.

The lift arrived on the floor and both Lin and Hong Li entered and it was soon on its way back down the ground floor of the apartment complex. “Do you know where they were kidnapped?” Lin asked while they were waiting.

“Somewhere in the eastern harbour, not far from Future Industries. Mr Varrick was returning from a meeting with Ms. Sato, the CEO of Future Industries, when his boat was ambushed.”

The lift arrived on the ground floor and Lin headed straight for the entrance, the doorman on duty nodding in greeting as she passed. “Did you bring a car?” she asked, pausing by the door.

Hong Li nodded in confirmation. “Yes, Chief, it's waiting out front.”

“And Dakola and Tang, where are they?”

“They are waiting outside your office in the Western Precinct, Chief.”

“Good work,” Lin said, pushing the door open and heading outside. She paused on the step and looked back at the young officer with a half smiled. “Oh and next time try to remember that it's Varrick/Moon Global Industries, I was at the wedding.”

“Yes Chief.”

 

* * *

 

“You are with me, Rookie,” Lin said as she took the stairs leading up to her office two steps at a time. Despite the age difference between them she was easily able to keep ahead of Hong Li and the young officer found himself struggling to keep up with Lin as she headed upstairs. As she strode through the halls of the station, Lin glared at any on-duty officers she saw lounging around instead of working and soon a trail of surprisingly busy police officers marked her path through the station.

When they arrived outside Lin's office they found Sergeant Tang and Detective Dakola sitting down at a desk and chatting about the upcoming pro-bending season, but seeing the Chief approaching they snapped to attention. Lin didn't waste any time and quickly gave them their orders. “Sergeant Tang, go up to the control room and get on the radio. I want an airship and strike team here and ready to go in less than half an hour. There should be one in the air at the moment, so get them over to this station now. If there isn't then wake Captain Guo and tell him I want to know why he hasn't been doing his job.”

“Yes Chief!” the sergeant said, saluting and walking down the corridor towards the stairs.

“Dakola, what have you learned since you sent the kid to fetch me?”

The detective had been busy flicking through her notebook. She looked up when Lin addressed her. “Nothing more yet, Chief.” she admitted.

“Then what exactly have the two of you been doing aside from talking about pro-bending?” Lin asked.

“I asked the duty officer here to dispatch a harbour patrol to where Varrick was kidnapped and I've spoken to the Eastern Precinct duty officer and he is sending air and land patrols to help search the area as well. I've also called the harbour control room and had someone there check in with Mr Varrick's yacht and have confirmed that he is missing and that his crew there have had no contact with him or his wife since they left for a meeting at Future Industries this morning.”

Lin nodded, and then used her key to open up her office and gestured for both Dakola and Hong Li to join her inside. Once seated behind her desk, she looked over at the detective. “So, what you are saying is that we have no more information on where Varrick might have been taken?”

“Sorry, Chief,” Dakola said. “Not a thing so far.”

“Have we had any contact with his kidnappers?”

“Not so far, Chief.”

Lin thought for a few moments before she asked her next question. “Have you set up road blocks on the major exits to the city? Or the train station?”

“No Chief, I don't have the authority to order a full lockdown of the city so I sent officer Hong Li to fetch you. But if they planned on leaving the city then wouldn't they have already done so hours ago? According to Mr Varrick's bodyguard, it was eight hours between when the attack happened and when we found the boat and there would have been dozens of trains and ships leaving the city in that time. Although, if they plan on asking for a ransom, they may stay in the city so it's easier when they make the exchange.”

“This isn't about money,” Lin said. “You have seen the Downtown district haven't you?”

“Of course, Chief.”

“Well, there are only three people in the world right now who know how to make the weapon that did that. One is imprisoned in Zaofu being watched over by my sister and the White Lotus, the other two are Varrick and Zhu Li. Now, do you still think this is about money?”

The detective shook her head. “No Chief, when you put it that way, this is far worse.”

“Yes it is.”

“I'm sure we'll find them, Chief. Even if these kidnappers have already left the city it is still a long way to the border, especially with two captives.”

“I hope for all our sakes that you are correct, Detective,” Lin said, reaching for the phone on her desk. “Because I'm going to have to call the president now and explain to him that two of the most dangerous minds in the world have potentially just been kidnapped by our enemies.”

 

* * *

 

With his phonograph filling the air with the sounds of a Fire Nation opera, Raiko stirred the drink again. With a critical eye he gazed at the pale liquid filling the jug, stirred it again, and then dipped the tip of his index finger into the concoction and checked it for taste. Satisfied with the mixture, he poured two equal measures from the jug into the waiting glasses and added a spoonful of crushed ice and a squeeze of lemon juice to each drink. He spun around in time to the music and picked up two toothpicks and stuck them into olives in a bowl on the table. After depositing one olive each glass, he moved the drinks over to the tray where he had previously laid out crackers and cheese, a selection of candied nuts, and a plate of sliced fruit. He ran a hand through his hair to smooth out a few errant strands and then he loosened his robe a little, pulling it open at the top to expose his chest. He then picked up the tray and headed for the bedroom where his wife was waiting.

The jarring sound of a telephone ringing right by his ear nearly caused him to drop the carefully prepared tray. He grimaced in annoyance and put the tray down on the edge of the small table next to the still ringing telephone and picked up the receiver instead. “What is it?” he snarled down the line.

“Raiko, It's Lin,” the voice on the other end of the line said.

“Lin? Do you know what time it is?”

“I know, I was woken up as well. It's an emergency, someone has kidnapped Varrick and Zhu Li. I think it could be Kuvira loyalists, you know we have been looking for them.”

“What? Varrick is missing? Do you know how bad that could be.”

“Of course I do,” Lin said. “I'm already doing everything I can to find him, but I need your authorisation to lock down the city. We might even need the army to help us search if they have already left the city.”

Raiko considered this for a moment. “Get Avatar Korra to help find them. Prince Wu told me that Mako said she has some weird spiritual trick or something that she used to track Wu down when he was kidnapped by Kuvira's agents. Perhaps she can do the same thing again now and find Varrick for you.”

“Okay, I'll get her,” Lin said, although her voice sounded doubtful at the idea that the Avatar could track people that easily. “But just in case, do I have your permission to put up roadblocks and conduct searches of all outgoing traffic?”

“Yes,” the president replied. “Do what you think you have to, Lin. I'm making it your personal responsibility in ensuring that not only is Varrick recovered, but also that nothing like this happens again. I don't care how much Varrick complains, he isn't going to take another step anywhere in this city without a full-time police guard watching his every move. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Sir,” Lin replied.

“Good, now stop wasting time and find him.”

He slammed the telephone receiver down and sighed in annoyance. It seemed there was never a day that would go by when there wasn't some crisis or another and to think that in a few short months he would willingly be standing for another term as president. Days like this really made him reconsider that decision.

“Raiko?” Buttercup called from the bedroom. “Where are those drinks?”

He picked up the tray and called back, “Coming, dear.”

 

* * *

 

Lin replaced the telephone receiver on the cradle and looked up at Hong Li who was still sitting in her office with Detective Dakola. “Find us a pot of tea,” she said. “It looks like I have another call to make.”

“Right away, Chief,” he said. As the young officer hurried out of the room, Lin spoke to the operator and asked that she be put through to Air Temple Island.

Ten minutes later she was still on the phone and had nearly finished her second cup of tea. She had called Air Temple Island and spoken to Tenzin, who had informed her in his usual annoyingly dispassionate voice that Korra was staying with Asami Sato that evening and that Lin should call Asami. A call to the Sato mansion had not been answered, and neither had a call to the other number on record for Asami. Lin now realised that the second number must have been Asami's old apartment in the Downtown district, which was now in ruins. After she was reminded by Dakola that Asami's satomobile factory had a late shift that ran until midnight, Lin had managed to get hold of a shift supervisor at the factory. While he also did not know the current phone number for Asami, he had given Lin the number of Asami's assistant.

“We really need to update our records,” Lin said, shaking her head in frustration as she picked up the phone again.

 

* * *

 

Zhu Li grimaced as the metal shackles scrapped against the skin of her wrists. She was not an expert at picking locks, but these were fairly average quality and she was making good progress with just her hairpins. However, every time one of their guards looked in her direction she had to stop working on the locks and hide what she was doing to avoid discovery. She glanced over at Varrick who was watching her progress and inclined her head towards the nearest guard. He glanced over at the guard then looked back at her and shrugged. She repeated the gesture, but this time she also pantomimed a quacking platypus-bear with her fingers. Varrick smiled and nodded his understanding and then cleared his throat noisily.

“Hey you,” Varrick called out to the woman who it appeared was in charge of this group. She was now assisting two of the men to get the second mecha suit repaired and ready for use. One of the men was currently strapped into the suit, while the tall man who had earlier assaulted Varrick was fiddling with one of the suit's joints, poking at it with a screwdriver in a way that made Varrick cringe.

“Shut up, traitor,” the last of the four said. He was a shorter man dressed in the green overalls that was this group's defacto uniform, although his particular set of overalls was ill-fitting and baggy when compared to his companions. He was sitting near the radio and fiddling with the frequency dials. Varrick had yet to see any of the four make or receive a message, but the device looked powerful enough to make a long-range call.

“I'm not a traitor,” he said, deciding that if he was going to draw their attention he needed to antagonise them. “Kuvira was the traitor, she turned against her own ideals and went crazy with power. She betrayed the Earth Empire, she betrayed us all.”

“Shut up,” the man said again, a little louder this time. Pleased to hear anger creeping into the man's voice, Varrick also noted that the other three guards starting to take notice of the conversation and they had looked up from their work and where staring at him.

“It's true, that's why she surrendered at the end. She knew she had gone too far, that she had betrayed her own ideals for power.”

“Kuvira didn't surrender,” the woman interrupted, walking across the room and placing a restraining hand on the shoulder of the radio operator. She gestured with her head towards the mecha suit and the man left the radio and went to help work on the suit, while she walked over to Varrick.

“What are you talking about,” he asked. “I was there when she surrendered to Su.”

“That wasn't Kuvira,” the woman said calmly. “You witnessed a lie, just like everyone else.”

Varrick frowned. This conversation was not taking the path he had originally planned. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“The thing you saw surrender was not Kuvira,” the woman said. “Kuvira is dead, she was killed when her mecha was destroyed after that traitor Baatar's vile treachery.”

“No she isn't,” Varrick said. “Kuvira is in a cell in Zaofu.”

“Whatever is in that cell it is not Kuvira. Kuvira died and then the Avatar had her replaced with a dark spirit that had taken her form so she could trick us into ending the war.”

“Why...”

“Exactly,” the woman said. “Why would Kuvira surrender. We were on the cusp of victory, the United Republic army has collapsed or been destroyed, our forces controlled the city and all we had to do was kill the Avatar and her few remaining allies and we would have won the day. Yes we had taken some losses and the explosion was... unexpected, but our armies surrounded the Avatar, there was no way she could have escaped. Then Kuvira surrendered? Why? She would never surrender while she was alive.”

“She surrendered because the Avatar would have beaten her and the rest of you if you hadn't surrendered,” Varrick said. “Kuvira underestimated Korra's power, you all did.”

“Nonsense,” the woman said. “I was at Zaofu when we retook it, I saw Kuvira beat the Avatar in single combat. The Avatar would have died there if her airbender friends hadn't interfered and stolen her away to safety. The Avatar was weak, everyone saw that. There is no way Kuvira would have surrendered to her if she was alive.”

Varrick couldn't help himself and he burst out laughing. The woman's glared at him and when he wouldn't stop laughing, she smacked him hard across the mouth. Blood trickled down Varrick's chin from a split lip, but he was still grinning broadly. “You think this was funny,” the woman snarled at him.

“No,” Varrick said, “But this is. Zhu Li, do the thing!”

“What...” the woman began to say.

She didn't get time to finish, however, as Zhu Li's fist, wrapped in a heavy metal chain, hit her in the side of her mouth. As the woman collapsed clutching at her injured face, Zhu Li spun around and kicked her hard in the stomach, sending her flying backwards into a packing crate. On the other side of the room the two men working on repairing the mecha suit stopped their work and rushed towards her, while the third man struggled with the straps holding him into the seat of the mecha suit. Zhu Li calmly unwrapped the chain around her knuckles, spinning one of the shackles about her head as she walked towards the three men with a grim smile on her face.

 

* * *

 

“Go away,” Seiko muttered as the insistent ringing of the phone woke her. She reached down beside her bed and found one of her shoes and tossed it towards the phone. The shoe missed and the phone kept ringing.

“What's the noise?” A sleepy voice asked from beside her.

“I need a light,” Seiko said.

Rina lifted her hand and pointed her fingers towards a bedside table, sending a jet of flame across the top of the table and igniting several candles sitting there. A pale, flickering light filled the room, as well as the sweet scent of jasmine from the scented candles.

“Thank, babe,” Seiko said as she jumped out of bed and picked her way across the messy floor of her bedroom to reach the telephone. “Asami...” She began as she lifted the receiver. “Oh, Chief Beifong.”

“Are you Seiko Matsuo?”

“Yes...”

“Can you give me the phone number of Asami Sato?”

“No, she doesn't have a phone connected at her new place yet.”

Seiko could almost feel the frustration down the line as the police chief sighed and said, “Can you at least tell me how to find her?”

“I'll give you the address of her apartment,” Seiko said. She had no sooner finished giving Lin the address to Asami's apartment than the line went dead as Lin slammed down the receiver at the other end. Seiko gingerly replaced the receiver and went back to bed.

“Who was that?” Rina asked Seiko snuggled in beside her and slid her arms around her.

“Chief Beifong looking for Asami.”

“She thought Asami was here? Should I be jealous?”

Seiko kissed her girlfriend on the back of the neck. “Of course not, Asami has someone else to keep her warm.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

 

* * *

 

Zhu Li brushed her hair back away from her face and straightened her jacket, ignoring for now the long jagged rip that ran down one side of the garment. She was breathing heavily and stood with one hand resting on the shaft of the heavy metal control column she had grabbed off the table during the fight.

“Well done,” Varrick called from across the room.

She looked around the room. The woman who had hit Varrick was still lying unconscious in the ruins of a packing crates not far from her husband, who was still sitting on the ground with his wrists shackled. The shorter of the three male guards was lying face down on the floor with her shackles wrapped around his neck and the other two men lay nearby, unconscious and bleeding from wounds on their heads where she had struck them with her improvised metal club.

Two of the benders had torn up the stonework of the floor as they had tried to stop her, but she had managed to avoid their attacks long enough to bring them down, although the large piece of stone that had smashed into the ladder up to the surface was going to cause problems. A screwdriver bent at her head by the last guard had torn the side of her jacked but missed her torso. Instead, it pieced the side of the radio and caused it to spark and then catch fire, filling the air with a burning stench as the wires and tubes inside the radio melted.

She let the metal control column fall to the ground and hurried over to where the woman lay. Searching the woman's pockets, Zhu Li found the keys to their shackles and went to free Varrick. “I think we should get out of here,” she said, glancing towards the sewer tunnel entrance. They hadn't heard from or seen the working mecha suit since it had left the room on whatever errand its driver had been tasked with, but if it returned their escape would prove very short-lived.

“Up the ladder,” Varrick suggested.

They both looked at the ladder. The large chuck of stone thrown by one of the benders now cut it off halfway up the wall and the stone had not only bent the ladder out of shape, but nearly blocked the hole leading up into the ceiling. “I think I can get around it,” Zhu Li said. “Keep watch on that tunnel while I check it out.”

Zhu Li jumped up and grabbed the edge of the chunk of rock and pulled herself up. She squeezed through the gab between the rock and the ceiling and headed up the ladder. Shortly after, Varrick heard a banging noise from the top of the ladder and then Zhu Li reappeared, dropping back down to the floor. “It's no good,” she said.

“Why, what's the problem?”

“That way is sealed. There is a thick metal barrier with no visible way of opening it. I think it's designed so only metalbenders can get past it. I tried to budge it but it is fused into one solid disk of metal.”

“I should have realised,” Varrick said. “They are probably all metal benders so they probably just bend it open if they have to leave. Still, there might be a way through that barrier.”

“How are we going to do that?” Zhu Li asked. “We would need some sort of cutting tool. I don't see anything like that here.”

“What about the mecha suits, the flamethrower I designed for those suits should be powerful enough to melt through steel if I adjust the width and strength of the flame.”

“But it's still attached to those ruined mecha suits. Going by that control column, I think these are the mecha suits you hit with the EMP pulse, their wiring is completely fried.”

“The control column is, and probably most of the internal wiring. But if the power core is intact and we can remove the weapon from the arm...”

“...then we can rig up portable flamethrower,” Zhu Li finished for him.

“Exactly,” Varrick smiled. He walked over to where the two mecha suits were resting up against the wall and started examining them.

“This will take time,” Zhu Li warned as she joined him. “And there is a risk that working mecha tank will return.”

“Maybe you should keep watch?”

Zhu Li shook her head. “Why? We should hear its steps on the tunnel floor if it returns, and anyway two people working on the suit will make for quicker work.”

Varrick looked over at the pile of tools and equipment the guards had used for their repair work on the mecha suits. Spotting a roll of electrical wire and a pair of pliers he pulled them from the pile and passed them to Zhu Li. “Make sure those soldiers are safely tied up,” he said. “The last thing we want is these insane Kuvira supporters waking up and trying to kill us again.”

Zhu Li nodded and used the pliers to cut of lengths of wire to bind the unconscious soldiers. While she was doing that, Varrick picked up a screwdriver and started to remove the screws from a panel on the side of one of the mecha suits.

 

* * *

 

“This is it,” Lin said, peering out the pilot's window towards the building below. The old, five-story building was where Asami's assistant had said it would be, although Lin was still doubtful that Asami Sato, who was probably the richest person in Republic City, would choose to dwell in such a decrepit neighbourhood when she had a perfectly good mansion waiting for her. Following Seiko's instructions, Lin ran her gaze along the top floor of the building and soon found the only apartment where the windows hadn't been boarded up. Tapping the pilot on the shoulder, she gestured towards a balcony at the far end of the building. “Get as close as you can to that balcony,” she said.

Lin left the control room and headed towards the airship's rear door. “Wait here,” she said as she passed her team of elite metalbending officers who had joined her, Detective Dakola, and Hong Li on the airship. Hong Li was looking a little uncomfortable next to the elite metalbenders who were all older and more experienced while, sitting on the seat next to him, Dakola remained calm and collected. Attaching her metal cables to the hooks at the top of the airship's open rear hatch, Lin leapt into the air and dropped down to the balcony, using the cables to slow her descent.

Landing safely on the balcony, she looked around. The balcony was bare stone, thick with dust and bird droppings and there were no decorations to be seen, which reinforced her doubts about this being Asami's home. The wooden and glass doors, while intact, were in poor repair with flaking paint and there were even cracks in the wood in places. Still, she had to trust the directions she had been given, so she reached out and knocked on the edge of one of the doors, calling out for Korra.

 

* * *

 

Asami shook Korra's shoulder. “Korra?” Instead of waking, Korra snorted and rolled over in her sleep, clutching at her pillow and muttering to herself. Asami shook her girlfriend by the shoulder again. “Korra, wake up!”

Korra's eyes snapped open and she turned to face Asami. “What the matter?”

“There is someone outside,” Asami told her.

The knocking came again, a loud rapping on the wooden frame of the glass doors that opened out on to the balcony. “Korra!” a familiar voice called out.

“That sounds like Lin,” Korra said to Asami. “Coming,” she called out as she climbed out of the bed and started searching the floor for her clothes. She found her pants on the floor at the end of the bed and pulled those on, but with the curtains closed and the light off she couldn't see the rest of her clothes anywhere close to the bed. “Where are my clothes,” she whispered to Asami as she fumbled around in the dark.

“I don't know,” Asami replied, her voice a little muffled as she was pulling her nightgown on over her head as she spoke. “Take my jacket, it's on the chair near the door to the dining room. There is a light switch next to the door.”

Korra stumbled over to the door and felt around until she found the light switch. Once light filled the room, she quickly spotted the red and black jacket lying on the chair and pulled it on, only to find that it was too tight for her and she couldn't do up the buttons. Holding the jacket closed with her hand to try to look at least halfway decent, Korra walked over to the door and opened it. “Lin,” she said, peering out of the door. “What are you doing here?”

Lin was a little taken back when confronted by Korra wearing nothing but her pants and Asami's jacket, which was very obviously too small for her. “Um...” she began. “We have a problem.”

“Well, what is it?” Korra asked, a little irritable at her sleep being interrupted.

“Varrick and Zhu Li have been kidnapped,” Lin said. “We suspect it is Kuvira loyalists, probably working for those missing generals I mentioned to you earlier today. President Raiko sent me to get your help so we can find him before Varrick is forced to make any more spirit vine weapons like he was for Kuvira.”

Although she didn't feel cold, Korra shivered at the idea of someone with their hands on another spirit ray weapon. “Of course I'll help,” she said. “But how did you know I was here?”

“Don't ask,” Lin said. “You really don't want to know how long it took me to find you.”

“Okay, just give me a minute to find my clothes then.” She left the door open and hurried off towards the dining room where she now recalled leaving her top after Asami had removed it earlier that night.

Asami grabbed her lacy purple dressing gown off the chair near her bed and pulled it on over the top of her nightgown as she walked across the room to the balcony door. “Hello Lin,” she said, joining the police chief on the balcony.

“Asami,” Lin said. There was an uncomfortable pause in the conversation as both woman stood on the balcony without meeting each other's gaze and tried to think of something to say to each other without broaching the obvious topic that was foremost on their minds.

“How did you know to find Korra here?” Asami asked after half a minute of neither speaking.

“Oh, well first I rang Tenzin and he said she was with you. Then I tried to ring your mansion and your old apartment but there was no answer on either number so I had to ring your factory. I finally spoke to someone there who told me to ring your assistant, Seiko is it? She gave me directions to this place.”

“I see,” Asami said. “Well, I'm having the phone connected here soon. So you'll be able to call direct if you are looking for me again.”

“That's good to hear,” Lin said.

From the dining room here was a low growling roar, followed by Korra crying out, “Naga! Put that down at once.” A clattering noise came next, as if something wooden had fallen on the stone floor.

Lin looked over at Asami who was clutching her dressing gown tight about her and shivering in the chilly night air. “So...” she began. “You and... um... Korra?”

Asami blushed bright red with embarrassment, but nodded in response to Lin's question. “Yeah... me and... um... Korra.”

Korra saved them from any further embarrassment as she ran back into the bedroom holding her glider staff and now dressed in her own clothing, although her top looked a little damp on one side where a large polar bear dog had drooled on it. She tossed Asami's jacked back on the chair where she had found it and then bent down next to the bed and came up clutching her boots in triumph. After tugging them on, she headed for the balcony.

Asami grabbed Korra's arm as she passed and pulled her close so she could give her girlfriend a quick, but passionate kiss goodbye. “Be careful, Korra,” she said as they parted.

“Don't worry,” Korra said. “I'll be back soon.”

Lin had looked up at the airship while the two women had said goodbye, but now she turned back to Korra. “Ready to go?” she asked. When Korra nodded, she put her arm around Korra's waist and after tightening the cable connecting her with the airship hovering above, they both shot up into the air. After Lin and Korra were safely on board the airship's rear hatch closed and it began to head east towards the harbour.

As Asami stood and watched them fly away over the city she became aware of a large furry shape moving up behind her. “Korra will be back soon,” she told Naga as the polar bear dog looked up at her with large soulful eyes. When Naga whined, Asami squatted down near to her and ruffled the fur on the top of the animal's head. “Seeing it's just you and me now, how about we get a drink?” she asked.

Naga looked up at Asami and cocked her head to one side and then whined again. Asami smiled at the polar bear dog, patted her on the head again, and then led the way into the kitchen to find a clean bowl and a fresh glass for herself. Pouring some water from the tap into the bowl she put it down on the floor in the dining room and then picked up the almost empty bottle of wine from where she had left it hours before and poured the remaining wine into her glass.

As Naga lapped up her water and she sipped her wine, Asami made her way to her workroom. She turned on the light, sat down at her drafting table and picked up her pen. The blueprint she had worked on earlier was nearly complete, so she got back to work, her pen tracing delicate lines on the page as she put the finishing touches on her new engine design.

 

* * *

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

 

* * *

 

“So you need spirit vines?” Lin asked. The police chief was standing with Korra, Detective Dakola, and Hong Li at the back of the airship as they discussed their next move towards finding Varrick and Zhu Li.

Korra nodded. “I think I do. I'm still not sure exactly how this thing I can do works or even if it will work with Varrick.”

“And you learned this from my mother?”

“Yes when I was in the swamp with her.”

“I can't imagine my mother having a spiritual connection with anything,” Lin muttered.

“There are spirit vines along the canal that cuts between the farmers market and the south-eastern residential district,” Dakola suggested. “We won't be able to land this airship there though, the buildings are too close together.”

“All right, I'll get a patrol car to meet us there,” Lin said.

As Lin headed to the airship's control room to use the radio located there, Detective Dakola leaned closer to Korra. “So if you've met the chief's mother what is she like? Toph was a bit before my time, but she is something of a legend on the force you know.”

“She was different from what I expected,” Korra said.

“Oh, how so?”

“Well, I wasn't really expecting a grumpier version of Lin.”

“Really, is that even possible?” Dakola asked.

“You'd be surprised how many people say that,” Korra commented. Several of the police officers, who had listened in on the conversation, laughed at this. However, Lin's return from the control cabin quickly cut off any laughter and a guilty silence reigned.

“All right,” Lin said as she walked back to join them. “A patrol vehicle will meet us at the market, it should be deserted at this time of the night.”

“We are nearly there,” Dakola said, pointing out of a window towards a line of streetlights that ran east from the edge of the water. “That should be the canal right there. If I recall correctly, the spirit vines are at this end, fairly close to the water.”

Lin grabbed a portable radio off a rack at the back of airship and pushed it into Hong Li's hands. “You are on radio duty, rookie,” she said. “That means you are coming along with us. Dakola I'll need you as well.”

“Yes, chief,” the detective said.

“What do you want us doing?” one of the other officers asked.

“You stay with the airship,” Lin ordered. “We'll call on the radio once we have a definite location for Varrick and you can join us there. We still don't know exactly what we might be facing, so be ready for anything.”

As the officer nodded his understanding, Lin reached up and hit the button that lowered the airship's rear door. With a whining noise the back of the airship dropped down and opened up to form a ramp. Lin walked to the edge and looked down at the ground below, holding on to one of the ramp's struts to avoid falling. They were now flying over the canal and on either side of the waterway multi-story buildings rose into the air. A narrow road followed the left side of the canal and Lin could see one point where the road arched up and around a clump of thick vegetation, most likely the spirit vines Dakola had mentioned.

“This is our stop,” Lin said, leaping off and shooting her metals cables out towards nearby buildings to slow her descent. After clipping the portable radio to his belt, Hong Li followed her down, also using his cables to slow his descent to the ground.

Korra picked up her glider staff and was about to follow when she looked over at Dakola who was standing near the end of the ramp and peering down towards Lin and Hong Li. “Do you need a lift,” Korra asked, noting that the detective was still only dressed in her dark-grey suit and had no metalbender armour of her own.

“I'm fine,” Dakola said and she leapt off the back of the ramp, her suit jacket fluttering in the breeze and she dropped away from the airship and fell towards the earth.

Korra ran to the edge of the ramp and looked down, just in time to see the detective slowly floating downwards with a swirl of air surrounding and supporting her. Korra jumped after her, using her staff to glide down to the road that ran along the edge of the canal.

“You're an airbender,” Korra said accusingly to Dakola as she joined the others on the ground.

“I'm a detective who can airbend,” the detective corrected her. “I don't know all those fancy tricks they teach you out on Air Temple Island.”

“So you were one of the...”

“Yeah, this is all your fault. Before harmonic convergence I was just a simple detective, but since I got airbending everyone expects me run off to join the air nomads and ride a sky bison.”

“Tenzin could teach you to understand your powers.”

“I don't need to,” Dakola said. “I think about it, wave my hand, and air moves about. That's all I need to know, they can keep the rest of that fancy stuff. Besides the robes are ugly, those wing-suits are worse, there is no way I'm ever giving up my mother's roast turtle-duck with orange glaze, furry animals make me sneeze, and I already have a real job.”

“Tenzin's already tried every argument you can think of,” Lin said with a smile.

“Asami designed those wing-suits,” Korra said. “I think they look good.”

“We have a job to do,” Dakola reminded her. She pointed towards a large cluster of spirit vines that grew out of the edge of the canal and up the side of a nearby building. “Will these vines do?”

“They should do,” Korra said. “But just don't be surprised if this doesn't work, I haven't had much of a chance to practice the technique.”

Korra touched the spirit vine and let her thoughts focus on Varrick. She remembered their first meeting in the Southern Water Tribe capital, the time they worked together to free her father, then her thoughts shifted to his wedding with Zhu Li just a couple of weeks earlier. A vision popped into her head, but it wasn't Varrick that she saw, it was Asami. Her girlfriend was sitting down at her drafting table, her long fingers brushing the page like she... Korra broke her connection with the spirit vine and stepped away, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks.

“Did you find him?” Lin asked.

Korra shook her head. “Give me a moment,” she said, taking several deep breaths to focus her mind and clear away the images of earlier vision. “I'll try again.”

She reached out and touched the vine again, this time ensuring that she only focused on Varrick, on his thin moustache, on the way he smirked when he was scheming, on the time he had hung upside down after eating a hot pepper. In a flash another vision appeared to her and this time she saw Varrick and Zhu Li. They were busy attaching a metal pipe to a strange glowing, spherical device that was sitting on a table. Behind them was a large metal pipe and Korra was just able to make out writing on it before the vision faded.

“That way,” she said, pointing north along the river. “They are underground not far from here, somewhere near the river bank. There is a large pipe with the number thirty-four, then a dash and the number two.”

“Sewer pipes,” Hong Li said. “All the major sewer junctions are numbered so work crews know where to go.”

“You know that?” Lin sounded surprised. “How long have you been in the city?”

“A few months,” the young officer said. “But I read all books we were given when we joined the force.”

“You must be the first,” Lin said. “All right, call it in. Find someone who has a map of the sewers or who knows what those numbers mean and find out exactly where that sewer junction is. The sooner Varrick is back in our hands the safer I'll feel.”

 

 

* * *

 

“Careful now,” Varrick said as he stood over the small power core with a wrench in one hand and a piece of platinum pipe in the other. Zhu Li was also holding the pipe, helping to keep it steady as Varrick guided it towards the valve at the top of the power core. While the mecha suit's main engines operated on the same fuel as other vehicles, this power supply had been designed to charge the suit's weapons, including its flamethrower and the powerful lightning weapon.

“This had better work,” Zhu Li said, glancing towards the tunnel again. “I don't think we have much time.”

“My inventions always work,” Varrick boasted. He glanced up and winced when he saw Zhu Li glaring accusingly at him. “All right, I know, I mean most of my inventions work. Now let the pipe go, I think I have it set in place.”

Zhu Li released the pipe and took a quick step back. Varrick also jumped back and crouched down with his hands over his head to shield his face from any sparks or shards of super-heated metal that might come flying his way if the power core exploded.

Nothing happened and he peaked out from behinds his hands. “Looks like it worked,” he said with a broad smile. He picked up the spool of wire they had used to bind the guards and cut off a long piece. “Bring the flamethrower,” he said.

Zhu Li lifted the weapon, which once removed from the arm of the mecha suit was little more than a long nozzle with a small fuel tank attached beneath and a trigger mechanism at the end. She lugged it over to the power core and lowered it until the core rested just behind the fuel tank, the platinum pipe they had previously attached to the core poking out to one side.

Varrick looped the wire around the power core, binding it to the flamethrower. Next, he bent the pipe he had attached to the core so that the end now faced the opening at the end of flamethrower's nozzle. More wire was used to hold it there. He then fetched a pair of pliers and used them to bind another two pieces of wire together around a lever Zhu Li had broken off the mecha suits controls with a hammer.

“All right,” Varrick said, picking up a pair of goggles he had found in a box beneath the table and fitting them on over his head to cover his eyes. He lifted the flamethrower in both hands, sagging a little under the weight. “Let's give this a go,” he said.

“Maybe I should,” Zhu Li suggested.

Knees now buckling under the weight of the improvised weapon, Varrick nodded in agreement and he placed it back down on the table. Zhu Li picked it up and holding it steadily in her arms, pointed the weapon towards the wall. She reached down and pulled the improvised lever and flames shot from the nozzle and combined with a second stream of energy coming directly from the power core. A bright blue-white flame licked across the wall, leaving a long scorch mark.

After Zhu Li had released the lever again, Varrick hurried over and examined the scorch mark, probing it with a screwdriver. “It's cut right into the stone,” he said. “This should be strong enough to cut through metal as well, but it will still take some time.”

“Do we have enough fuel?” Zhu Li asked.

Varrick consider this. “The power core will last, but the fuel is limited. You get working cutting us a way out and I'll remove the other fuel cylinder so we have a backup.”

Zhu Li nodded and was carrying the flamethrower over to the ladder leading to the surface when she stopped. “Quiet,” she hissed to Varrick who was already tinkering with the second mecha suit.

Varrick stepped away from the suit and listened. A loud thump sounded, followed by another and then another, growing ever closer. The sound of the heavy footsteps of a mecha suit as it walked down the sewer tunnel towards them.

Zhu Li turned the flamethrower around so it pointed towards the tunnel entrance. “Get out of the way,” she told Varrick. As her husband scurried to find cover behind a table behind her, she rested one hand on the lever to activate the weapon and calmly waited for the mecha suit to appear.

 

* * *

 

The current police vehicles were the latest model satomobiles, keeping the classic satomobile shape but with special supercharged engines that allowed them to catch almost any other vehicle on the road, although Korra suspected that Asami's own custom-built satomobile was several steps up from these police models. Right now though she was concentrating on holding on for dear life as Lin sped through the streets towards their destination with the patrol vehicle's sirens screaming. Overhead and not far behind them the airship followed, its siren and spotlights also activated.

The radio crackled again and a garbled voice at the other end passed on some more information. Whatever the voice said, Lin obviously heard it clearly as she spun the wheel to the right and the satomobile tore around a corner and screeched to a stop in the middle of a street. “We're here,” Lin said as she threw open the door and jumped out of the patrol vehicle.

The sewer junction appeared was located on the side of a narrow street lined with unremarkable residential buildings, just one block back from the river. Lin was squatting down near the edge of the road, examining a metal disk in the footpath. “This should be it,” she told Korra.

Overhead the airship had arrived and the rest of Lin's strike force began abseiling down to join them. Korra knelt and examined the disk. A number etched into the top of the disk matched the one she had seen in the vision, but the disk appeared to be sealed with no visible way of opening it. “It's sealed,” she told Lin.

“Then we are facing metalbenders,” the police chief replied.

“I'm going in first,” Korra told her.

Lin nodded and looked around at her officers. “When the Avatar goes in, I want you all to follow close behind. We don't know what we are going to find down there, but remember securing Varrick and Zhu Li is the most important part of this mission. They cannot be allowed to fall into enemy hands.”

The officers nodded and gathered around Lin and she knelt next to metal disk. She looked up at Korra. “Ready?”

When Korra nodded, Lin pressed her hand on the metal disk, using her abilities to tear it open and then she quickly stepped back and allowed Korra to enter.

Korra glanced once into the passage beneath the disk and then jumped over the edge, falling a short distance and landing on a chuck of rock stuck into the wall. She stamped her foot hard on the rock and used her earthbending to ride it towards the floor.

A jet of yellow flame shot at her from across the room and she put both hands out in front of her and twisted them, bending the flame out and away from her body. A second jet of flame, this one blue, shot out from the other side of the room, but not towards her, towards whoever had attacked her.

Korra quickly looked around the room, spotting Zhu Li as the source of the blue flame. The other woman was crouching down and holding a twisted metal contraption that she had pointed towards a tunnel on the far side of the room. She also spotted Varrick hunkering down behind a table close to her and then in the tunnel entrance she could see a mecha suit standing with one of its arms pointed towards her and the other holding the edge of the tunnel as if to steady itself. This was what had attacked her.

As it shot flame at her again, she briefly entered the avatar state, raising a large wall in front of her to hold back the fire while at the same time she ripped two smaller chucks of stone from the floor and sent them across the room towards the mecha suit. Zhu Li also helped, shooting another jet of blue flame towards the mecha suit.

Korra left the avatar state and kicked out with her foot, pressing it hard against the stone wall she had raised just moments earlier. A chuck of rock shot off the top of the wall and smashed into the mecha suit, which now had its arm raised to fend off attacks. Korra could see its green armoured skin was now scorched in several places from where Zhu Li had attacked it, but her rocks didn't appear to have visibly damaged its armour.

Behind her, Lin abseiled down from above using her metal cables, quickly followed by one of her metalbendering officers. The pilot of the mecha suit decided it was time to leave and turned and ran off down the tunnel, another jet of flame from Zhu Li's flamethrower licking across the back of the suit as it departed.

“Secure the room,” Lin ordered the other officer who had entered with her. She then ran towards the tunnel, Korra at her side.

“This is going to be tough,” Korra said as she reached the tunnel. The stench of the sewer assaulted her nostrils and a thick sludge covered the floor of the tunnel which led off into the darkness. The only sign of the mecha suit was two dim lights vanishing into the distance.

“We can take this thing,” Lin told Korra. Back in the room more officers were abseiling down from above. Along with them came Dakola and Hong Li.

“Let's do it,” Korra said as they both ran along the narrow stone ledge at the side of the tunnel, the only part of the tunnel that appeared free from the flow of sewerage. She didn't bother trying to stop the mecha suit with her bending, it was too far away, instead she just ran as fast as she could along the ledge. In a couple of places the path was cracked and broken where the suit had stepped on it, but Korra just leapt over those gaps and kept on running with Lin just a half step behind her.

The mecha suit had reached another junction and briefly paused before making a long leap as if crossing an obstacle. When Lin and Korra arrived moments later they soon discovered what this was. This new junction was actually one where four tunnels met above a large hole. The hole led down to an old cistern far below where waste water drained away into the network of pipes that would carry it away from the city. Of more concern now though was the mecha suit which had paused in the entrance of a forth tunnel. This was an overflow tunnel for storm water that appeared to travel out straight on towards the river.

The mecha suit raised its arm and lightning arced across the gap, striking the top of the tunnel just above their head and raising stones down on the two women. Korra glanced at Lin who it appeared was thinking the same thing as her as the police chief nodded, her mouth set in a thin, determined line.

Lin raised her arms and her metal cables shot out and wrapped around the legs of the mecha suit, while Korra entered the avatar state again, raising large pillars of rock directly behind the mecha suit and pushing it forward towards the hole. The suit teetered of the edge of the hole for several long seconds as its mechanical servos tried to keep it from falling, but to no avail. With a screech of metal, the machine toppled forward and as it fell down the long shaft Lin pulled back on her cables, winding them back so she wasn't dragged along behind. A metallic crashing and grinding noise echoed up the shaft as the mecha suit fell, followed by what could only be described as a loud plop.

“Do you want to go down after it?” Korra asked.

Lin shook her head. “I wouldn't recommend taking a naked flame down there either,” she said. “I'll get my team to organise one of the sewer maintenance crews to come fish it out.”

“Hey!” a voice called out from the shaft.

They looked over the edge again, but it was far too dark to see anything clearly. Lin shrugged and lowered one of her cables into the hole. There was a tug on the other end and she fed out a bit more cable and then carefully tightened the cable, hoping she wasn't damaging their prisoner. As she pulled the cable back up again, a struggling and extremely filthy man came with it, neatly trapped in a coil of metal.

“Do you surrender?” Korra asked, creating a flame with her fist and holding it out in front of her.

“I surrender,” the man gasped.

The sound of footsteps came from behind them and Hong Li and two other officers appeared. “Just in time,” Lin said. “Rookie, take care of this prisoner.”

 

* * *

 

Back on the surface, Lin and Korra were standing near the police satomobile as the officers from the metalbending squad cordoned off the area. Two large trucks had arrived and earthbenders had cut a hole down into the room below so the two surviving mecha suits could be hauled away, along with anything else of value or interest. A team of officers was still down in the room, scouring every corner and looking for clues.

A doctor had arrived with an ambulance and she was tending to Varrick and Zhu Li, although Korra doubted either would need to attend hospital. In fact, much to Varrick's chagrin, Lin had already insisted that both remain guests of the Republic City Police and stay at the station in protective custody until their safety could be assured.

A crowd of people from nearby buildings had come out on to the street to watch the proceedings, and seemingly out of nowhere a gaggle of reporters has also turned up. All were being held back by the cordon of officers, but flash bulbs were popping regularly, so Korra imagined she'd be seeing her face in the papers tomorrow.

“So who were these people,” Korra asked as the second mecha suit hauled out from the room below and winched on to the back of one of the trucks

“They worked for Kuvira,” Varrick said. “I'd recognise the haircuts anywhere.”

“She's in prison,” Korra said. “I doubt she is giving orders to anyone at the moment.”

“She won't be,” Lin assured her. “I trust Su to keep Kuvira safely locked away. I think this group was working for one of those missing generals I told you about earlier.”

“Hopefully we'll find out more once we question them,” Dakola said. “Unfortunately only two survived the fight, the one you fished out from the sewer and the woman Zhu Li incapacitated.”

“What happened to the others,” Zhu Li asked. “I didn't hit them that hard.”

“Your little flamethrower battle with that mecha tank finished them off,” Dakola said. “We won't get anything more out of them I'm afraid.”

“We might learn something from their possessions,” Lin suggested. “We pulled a chest full of Earth Kingdom currency out of that room. It's hard to move that amount of cash about the city without someone noticing, so we might be able to trace that back to where it came from and find out who financed this.”

“It sounds like you'll be busy,” Korra said.

“You're not sticking around?” Dakola asked her.

“I think my work here is done,” Korra said. “I'm going home to bed, Lin.”

“Come by the station and see me tomorrow,” Lin called after her.

Korra grabbed her glider staff from the back of the police satomobile and leapt into the air, sailing down the road towards the river. Catching an air current she glided higher and headed out across Yue Bay on the long journey back to Asami's apartment.

“You know you want to be able do that,” Lin said to Dakola.

“I do,” the airbending officer agreed. “But there is still no way I'm wearing those airbender robes.”

 

* * *

 

Korra's glider staff snapped shut as she landed on the balcony of Asami's apartment. The lights were still on, but when she pushed open the balcony doors there was no sign of Asami in the bedroom. She leaned the glider staff up against the chair near the door to the dining room. Asami's jacket still lay where she had tossed it earlier than night and nothing else in the room appeared that it had been disturbed. Walking softly so not to wake Asami if she was sleeping on the couch, Korra crept into the dining room where a slumbering Naga had curled up near the table in the middle of the room dreaming her bear dreams of chasing prey across the tundra.

There was another light on in the room that led off the dining room, which Korra recalled Asami had describing as her temporary workroom, so she walked across to that door. Sure enough, she found her girlfriend there, fast asleep at her drafting table where she had obviously been working. Asami's head was resting against the blueprint she had worked on and her left arm had fallen down beside the table. A glint of gold on the other side of the room indicated where Asami's pen had ended up after it had fallen from her hand. Asami's dressing gown also lay pooled on the floor at her feet, having fallen off the back of her chair. Korra picked that up, folded it neatly and placed it on the table next to Asami's head. She also retrieved the pen and put that down on top of the folded dressing gown so Asami would be able to find it later.

Then, being extremely careful not to wake Asami, Korra gently lifted her girlfriend out of the chair and carried her back to the bedroom. Using a quick burst of airbending to blow back the covers, she placed Asami down on the bed and then pulled the covers up again. Asami stirred and rolled over in the bed to face away from Korra, but she didn't wake. Korra began to pull off her clothes to join Asami in the bed but stopped when she smelled the stench rising from her dirty clothes. Grimacing, she gathered up her clothes and deposited them in the far corner of the room, well away from the bed. Then she headed for the shower.

One quick hot shower and lots of soap and scrubbing later, Korra felt much cleaner and she walked back into the bedroom wrapped in a warm fluffy towel. Letting the towel fall down beside the bed, she crawled beneath covers and slid in beside Asami, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend and pulling her close. Asami stirred again and snuggled closer to Korra as if she was seeking out her warmth. Korra smiled and let herself drift off to sleep, safe and secure in Asami's bed.

 

* * *

 

END OF PART ONE

 

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although Varrick and Zhu Li have now been rescued many questions remain unanswered. Who was really behind the plot to kidnap the entrepreneur and are they after Varrick's secrets, or do they have some other plan? How will Varrick adapt to a full-time police escort shadowing his every move? Who is the smuggler? Will Korra's attempt at cooking be better than Asami's? Will Asami get the better of Varrick or is the wily inventor already two steps ahead of her? Will Jinora ever win her bet with Kai? And what adventures await Mako and Wu and Team Bumi on the train to Ba Sing Se? 
> 
> The answers to all these questions and much more will be revealed in PART TWO: THE PATRIOT where one man's choice between greed and national pride may decide the fate of Republic City.


End file.
